{"release":{"id":"DR1","released_on":"2026-08-21","doi":null,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases#dr1"},"epoch":{"requested":"now","label":"J2026.654","julian_year":2026.654,"time":"2026-08-27T17:05:40.078Z","years_from_j2000":26.654,"frame":"date","applied":"Proper motion, then precession and nutation. The catalogued J2000 position is carried along the great circle the object's own published motion puts it on, at a constant velocity, and the result is referred to the true equator and equinox of this instant. Those are separate things: the motion moves the object, and the rotation turns the grid under it by about fifty arcseconds a year, with nutation adding up to another seventeen.","excluded":"Parallax, the radial-velocity perspective term, aberration and refraction; each is below the accuracy of the catalogued positions themselves. An object with no published proper motion comes back where the catalogue has it rather than at a fabricated zero, and says so with a null pm_ra_mas_yr. A body with no fixed position is not propagated at all — its place comes from an ephemeris, which is what /api/v1/visible answers with."},"slug":"m16","name":"Eagle Nebula","class":"nebula","category":"nebula","object_type":"Nebula","mag":6,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":7000,"distance_method":"literature value (curated)","ra_deg":274.70070833333335,"dec_deg":-13.807222222222222,"epoch_ra_deg":275.081279,"epoch_dec_deg":-13.796783,"epoch_moved_arcsec":null,"pm_ra_mas_yr":null,"pm_dec_mas_yr":null,"orbits":null,"semi_major_axis_km":null,"periapsis_km":null,"mass_kg":null,"mass_msun":null,"constellation":"Serpens","discovered":"1745","featured":true,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/m16","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":"Home of the Pillars of Creation — towers of cold gas being sculpted and evaporated by the radiation of the young cluster they gave birth to.","properties":{"b_mag":6.58,"v_mag":6,"redshift":0.000033,"wikidata_id":"Q11349","discovered_by":"Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux","ngc_type_code":"Neb","major_axis_arcmin":120,"minor_axis_arcmin":25,"wikipedia_article":"Eagle Nebula","radial_velocity_km_s":10},"designations":[{"catalog":"LBN","designation":"LBN 67"},{"catalog":"MWSC","designation":"MWSC 2886"}],"source":{"id":"openngc","name":"OpenNGC","url":"https://github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC","license":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"updated_at":"2026-08-27T16:03:54.983Z","attribution":"Data from SpaceCatalog.org. Individual records carry their source and license in `source`; attribution is required for CC-BY and CC-BY-SA rows."}