Coordinate Proximity

[songar87]

How can the Stargate use constellations as coordinates for planets near the edge of the galaxy when all the stars that make up the symbols on the gate are located much, much closer to Earth?

[Type-8]

i've always imagined that the symbols are made up of constellations from around the galaxy, not just ones that can be seen from earth. i don't remember anyone ever saying that the constellations were all based on earth ones.

[songar87]

That occurred to me as well. They stated in SGU that the symbols are from Earth's perspective, so I figured that some of them could be constellations that the Ancients have the means to see but we don't.

[songar87]

I did just find this however: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs20/f/20...by_bushka8.jpg

[Type-8]

id say that's most likely the case. the constellations are probably from the perspective of earth (in regards to the angle of viewing) but not all visible.

[gkyun]

id say that's most likely the case. the constellations are probably from the perspective of earth (in regards to the angle of viewing) but not all visible.

Problem with this theory, though, is that every gate in effect would have its own set of unique symbols as defined by the constellations from the perspectives of the respective planets, not just the point of origin.

[P-90_177]

Which in the film is exactly what happened. The Abydos gate was completely different to Earth's.

[Quadhelix]

Fun trivia fact: apparently, in astronomy, the word "constellation" means "specified region of the sky" - a pattern of stars is called an "asterism" and constellations are often named after the asterisms within them.

For example, the constellation Orion is the region of the sky the pattern of stars often cited as the "constellation" Orion. Similarly, the constellation Ursa Major contains the asterism known as the The Big Dipper.

Thus, although the Stargate's symbols are based on asterisms, they may refer to specific objects within that Constellation - even if the object is outside the Milky Way.

[Type-8]

Problem with this theory, though, is that every gate in effect would have its own set of unique symbols as defined by the constellations from the perspectives of the respective planets, not just the point of origin.

only problem with this is on SG1 early on when Daniel is in the alternate universe. they receive a message with a gate address but it is in numbers. they look at camera footage of the planet it came from and say that the only symbol that is different would equal 1, as that would be the point of origin. hence, the other symbols must be the same.

fyi, im talking about the first episode with the quantum mirror

[coolcatkim22]

Problem with this theory, though, is that every gate in effect would have its own set of unique symbols as defined by the constellations from the perspectives of the respective planets, not just the point of origin.

But that would be a ridiculous system. That would be like if every phone had different symbols for numbers depending on where they were on the planet. Sure, it would be good for where you were, but it'd be awful if you had to use some else's telephone.

[jmoz]

Personally, I think the constellations may have started out as a coordinate system and acted as a sort of location coordinates that they can dial into. But overtime, I think they just programmed certain permutations of the different dials to refer to specific gates. I say this because the span of the existence of the ancients would far outdate mankind's existence and a good chunk of Earth's history. The star alignments and constellations would have been different in such huge timespans that people using the gates today wouldn't really have matched up constellations if they even exist still.

But maybe they don't even consider that in stargate, always a possibility.

In addition, the ancients seem to not have considered non-euclidean geometry when they adopted a constellation based coordinate system for the gates? Using constellations to define a specific location in relation to constellations would be somewhat short-sighted in the long run. I mean spacetime is non-euclidean in relativistic context.

Or it might be that they did know about it but just dismissed it out of hand not considering long term concerns, they were pretty short-sighted in the show leaving behind their tech for all kinds of havoc. They might have thought that such a timespan wouldn't have changed the constellations that much? Who knows, I personally lean towards the 'they didn't care about long term behaviour and thought that system would be good enough.' Also, I seem to vaguely recall Sam working out where a gate would have been from the coordinates defined by the gate address at some point and taking a ship there instead cause it couldn't be reached by a gate?