By Bill Pellerin, Houston Astronomical Society

The first time I ever heard of the Stargate asterism was when I picked up a copy of John Wagoner’s observing list at the Texas Star Party some years ago. The asterism was mentioned by the well-known observer Philip Harrington in a May, 1998 article in Sky and Telescope magazine, but John tells me that he’s the guy who created the identifier ‘Stargate’ for this collection of stars.

By Bill Pellerin, Houston Astronomical Society

Object:  Stargate

Class:  Asterism

Constellation:  Corvus

Magnitude:  6.6 (brightest star)

R.A.:    12 h, 35 m,  59 s

Dec:    –12°  03’ 09”

Size/Spectral:  About 6 arc minutes

Distance:  35.9 ly

Optics needed: Small telescope

The first time I ever heard of the Stargate asterism was when I picked up a copy of John Wagoner’s observing list at the Texas Star Party some years ago. The asterism was mentioned by the well-known observer Philip Harrington in a May, 1998 article in Sky and Telescope magazine, but John tells me that he’s the guy who created the identifier ‘Stargate’ for this collection of stars.

That’s not the earliest identification of this star grouping, though. You probably know about the Struve dynasty of double (and multiple) star catalogers. Generations of astronomers in the Struve family cataloged double stars, but it was in 1832, that Otto Struve cataloged the pairs AB, AC, and BC. Additional nearby pairs were cataloged after Otto’s death, but clearly he saw the collection of stars quite early on.

Not all of the stars in this asterism are part of the same physical system, though. That is, the stars are not all the same distance from us.

The Otto Struve catalog designation for this collection is STF 1659. (I always think of STF as being ‘Struve the father’ since he was the first astronomer in the family heirarchy).

You’ll need a magnification of about 100, or slightly higher, to get a good look at this asterism, so pick a telescope/eyepiece combination that provides this. I always use a wide field, low magnification combination to find objects in the sky, then I adjust the magnification as needed to get the best view.

What is a ‘Stargate’ anyhow? Are you old enough to remember “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”? In addition to a feature movie, there was a television series (1979-81). One of the ideas presented in the show was that there existed ‘Stargates’ that allowed travel between star systems. I suppose some of us think that such travel is facilitated by black holes these days. This collection of stars looks like the stargate from the tv show.

From 30 degrees north latitude (Houston, New Orleans, etc.) the object transits at an altitude of 40 degrees from the southern horizon. Farther north (Chicago,  for example) the maximum altitude is about 33 degrees.

By the way, what’s an ‘asterism’? An asterism is a grouping of stars that make a shape that is recognizable or can be associated with a known object. The most famous asterism is the ‘Big Dipper’ part of the constellation Ursa Major (the big bear).

The Stargate asterism is worth a look, easy to see, and a nice, bright object in the sky. You can find all of John’s Texas Star Party observing lists at www.texasstarparty.org; look under ‘Activities’.

Other favorite asterisms are the ‘Coathanger’ the ‘ET Cluster’ and the ‘Engagement Ring’.