Glyph

Glyphs are symbols on Stargates which chevrons lock onto when a Stargate is being dialed. The basis for glyphs on the Pegasus and Milky Way gates are constellations. Constellations are the names given to a group of stars linked close together. Oftentimes, constellations represent some sort of pictograph. There are several differences between Milky Way, Pegasus, and Destiny-style glyphs. The symbols on the Dial Home Device represent constellations, destinations used to link Stargates together are represented by constellations to form Addresses. (Stargate) (SG1: "Children of the Gods")

Milky Way[]

A Milky Way Stargate has 39 inscribed symbols on the inner ring. When dialing, this inner ring rotates until the dialed symbol is aligned with the seventh chevron, at which point the ring pauses, the seventh chevron moves down and up, and the appropriate chevron in the sequence engages and glows red.

With 38 symbols, the Stargate network in the Milky Way has

38×37×36×35×34×33 = 1,987,690,320 possible addresses.

8-symbol addresses will yield

38×37×36×35×34×33×32 = 63,606,090,240 possible addresses.

For a seven chevron address, each symbol must be unique as it is referencing a point in space; however, for an eight chevron address it is possible that the Stargate (by recognizing the entry of eight chevrons) allows the reuse of a glyph within an address - perhaps each having a different meaning, such as galaxy 'area codes' - which increases the possible number of addresses:

38×37×36×35×34×33×38 = 75,532,232,160 possible addresses.

However, not all points in space represented by these addresses have Stargates; indeed, there are sufficiently few valid coordinate sets that randomly dialing the Stargate is largely futile. (SG1: "Children of the Gods")

Because the gate on Earth was found without a DHD, the Stargate team on Earth developed a dialing computer to interface with the gate in order to power it and dial it by the use of computers (essentially an automated version of manual dialing). When using a DHD, however, each chevron is activated immediately upon entry of the symbols, without the inner ring spinning. This allows for a much swifter dialing process. (SG1: "Stargate", "Children of the Gods")

Milky Way glyphs[]

Position^[1]	Constellation	Position	Constellation	Position	Constellation
1	Point of origin (Giza)^[2]	14	Microscopium	27	Taurus
2	Crater	15	Capricornus	28	Auriga
3	Virgo	16	Piscis Austrinus	29	Eridanus
4	Boötes	17	Equuleus	30	Orion
5	Centaurus	18	Aquarius	31	Canis Minor
6	Libra	19	Pegasus	32	Monoceros
7	Serpens Caput	20	Sculptor	33	Gemini
8	Norma	21	Pisces	34	Hydra
9	Scorpius	22	Andromeda	35	Lynx
10	Corona Australis	23	Triangulum	36	Cancer
11	Scutum	24	Aries	37	Sextans
12	Sagittarius	25	Perseus	38	Leo Minor
13	Aquila	26	Cetus	39	Leo

Pegasus[]

As found out by the Atlantis expedition, the Ancients seeded planets throughout the Pegasus galaxy with Stargates too, but used gates of a slightly different, more advanced design, although the differences appear mostly cosmetic. Pegasus Stargates are designed with blue chevron lamps instead of orange, and the address symbols are groups of small blue lamps (rather than embossed figures) that light up sequentially instead of rotating. This also makes a manual dial impossible as manually dialing a Stargate requires the dialing ring to be rotated. When Atlantis moved from Lantea, the gate appeared to have changed glyphs dynamically, based on its current location, instead of having fixed symbols like the Milky Way galaxy has. This makes it possible for the gate to be used with ease in other galaxies as well.

Unlike the Milky Way gates, Pegasus gates are depicted with 36 symbols. 7 symbols are still required to dial an interplanetary address, cliving to the same constraints as a Milky Way gate. With 36 symbols, the Stargate Network in the Pegasus galaxy has

35×34×33×32×31×30 = 1,168,675,200 possible addresses.

8-symbol addresses will yield

35×34×33×32×31×30×29 = 33,891,580,800 possible addresses.

Pegasus glyphs[]

Position^[1]	Constellation^[3]	Position	Constellation	Position	Constellation
1	Subido (point of origin for Atlantis)^[2]	14	Aaxel	27	Poco Re
2	Bydo	15	Illume	28	Abrin
3	Robandus	16	Ramnon	29	Roehi
4	Sibbron	17	Avoniv	30	Sandovi
5	Once El	18	Lenchan	31	Gilltin
6	Laylox	19	Alura	32	Dawnre
7	Earth^[4]	20	Ecrumig	33	Elenami
8	Tahnan	21	Zamilloz	34	Recktic
9	Setas	22	Danami	35	Aldeni
10	Amiwill	23	Salma	36	Zeo
11	Acjesis	24	Hacemill	37^[4]	Unknown^[4]
12	Ca Po	25	Hamlinto	38^[4]	Unknown^[4]
13	Arami	26	Olavii	39?^[4]	Baselai^[4]

Destiny[]

Universe — Diagram of the first-generation Stargate

Destiny's Stargate bears 36 symbols like Pegasus Stargates and the whole Gate spins to dial an address. When dialling, the symbols light up to indicate they have been encoded. Destiny also contains a Gate bearing which lights up as each glyph locks; however planetary Gates do not share this trait.

The glyphs are not of constellations as with Milky Way and Pegasus Gates since the gate must be able to dial addresses from a moving point of origin in many different galaxies, but rather are some mathematical or conceptual representation yet to be discovered by the people aboard. The Stargates seeded throughout the galaxies Destiny has visited also use this type of address. It may also be possible that each 2nd and 3rd generation Stargate built by the Ancients were programmed to have 9-glyph addresses, in order to be compatible with 1st generation gates. It may also be possible that every gate has its own unique 9-glyph address. It is unknown whether using a 9-glyph address requires the last glyph to be a point of origin, as Destiny is constantly moving as has no point of origin, meanwhile Icarus dialed destiny using the point of origin as the last glyph.

Destiny glyphs[]

Position	Position	Position	Position
1	10	19	28
2	11	20	29
3	12	21	30
4	13	22	31
5	14	23	32
6	15	24	33
7	16	25	34
8	17	26	35
9	18	27	36

Notes[]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Starting at the Point of Origin as the first position (Giza for Milky way, Subido for Pegasus), and following clockwise rotation around the stargate. For the Pegasus Stargate this order is different than the list in Joseph Mollazzi's Blog post, and is instead a TV series true order based on matching the constellations to what is shown in the show.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 These glyphs are unique to the Alpha Gate and the Stargate installed in Atlantis, respectively. Other Stargates throughout Milky Way and Pegasus have different point of origin symbols, matching their respective DHDs.
↑ Pegasus glyph constellation names on Joseph Mallozzi blog post 3/26/13
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 ^4.5 ^4.6 While the glyph "Earth" is clearly depicted on screen and in Joseph Mallozzi's blog post, the blog post fails to designate its numerical position, and thus its numerical position is unknown. As it is not a point of origin symbol, it is native to all Stargates in the Pegasus galaxy. However, as Pegasus Stargates contain only 36 glyphs, Atlantis' Pegasus DHD contains 36 glyphs, and regular Pegasus DHDs ostensibly contain 38 glyphs (though this may just be an issue of reusing the Milky-Way DHD prop) it is unknown how this glyph is capable of appearing on Pegasus Stargates as the gates themselves would have insufficient space to accommodate a 37th (let alone 38 and 39th) glyph. It is possible that "Earth" is in fact "Baselai" - Joseph Mallozzi's blog post lists Baselai and yet shown no glyph for it on Atlantis' DHD, which is similar to how the blog post shows Atlantis' DHD containing "Earth" and yet fails to include it in the list. It is also possible that this may all be the result of a series of production errors.
Speculating that "Baselai" is in fact "Earth", this reduces the number of glyphs on a Pegasus Stargate to 38. This number includes the two "Unknown glyphs". Furthermore, lets assume that the reason regular Pegasus DHDs have 38 is simply an issue of re-using the Milky-Way prop and that they're canonically suppose to have 36. Considering that the source Stargate Wiki uses for the Pegasus glyphs was created by the producers for use in making the show (and not a deliberately created reference-guide for the fans) it is possible then that the two "unknown glyphs" only exist as a way to for the producers to account for the 2 extra spaces on the DHD and that no analogous spaces actually exist on the Stargates themselves.
It is also possible that the Ancients purposely left two spaces open on Pegasus DHDs (totaling 38 spaces) but only included 36 spaces on the Stargates themselves, for whatever reason.

Behind the Scenes[]

The appearance of constellations change even within the period of a few thousand years due to stellar drift. Thus, the constellations visible from Earth 50 million years ago (when the Ancients first established the Stargate network in the Milky Way) must have looked different than they do now.