How does the puzzle in 2-17 work?

[Wig Bang]

So "A New Hope", level 17 in Chapter 2 is confusing to me.

Particularly the puzzle where you use the rangefinder thing to find the planet.

I solved it but my solution was so convoluted I doubt it's what was intended. I was so lost scouring the entire level for coordinates that I tried interpreting the tentacles as coordinates. The left tentacles had 4 tentacles and 1 empty hole, so I took that to be 4 * 10^1 = 40, then the right had four tentacles and two empty holes so I took that as 4 * 10^2 = 400.

So I went to 40 on the x-y and 400 on the radius "z" component. At that point I saw the planet and zoomed in and beat the level.

But I feel like there was something else intended. Also it was so odd that x-y coordinates were compressed into one #. I get you can do that via a linear combination, but it seems very odd for a game like this.

I looked up walkthroughs and all th ey show are morons playing the puzzle without saying anything. (9 year olds or foreigners absolutely terrified of people hearing their voices)

[TerraEsperZ]

I think you were overthinking it.
I simply moved around with the X-Y until I got it to exactly 0, then zoomed in and was perfectly aligned with the planet.

[Wig Bang]

I see. Lol.

Honestly, sometimes having one of those deep intellects that people see and just awe at is more of a curse than a blessing