{"release":{"id":"DR1","released_on":"2026-08-21","doi":null,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases#dr1"},"epoch":{"requested":"now","label":"J2026.778","julian_year":2026.778,"time":"2026-10-12T00:35:06.277Z","years_from_j2000":26.778,"frame":"date","applied":"Proper motion, then precession and nutation. The catalogued position is carried along the great circle the object's own published motion puts it on, at a constant velocity, from the epoch that position was measured at, 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. The motion runs from position_epoch_jyear where the upstream publishes one — a timed pulsar's position belongs to the year it was timed — and from J2000 where it does not. 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":"m27","name":"Dumbbell Nebula","class":"planetary_nebula","category":"nebula","object_type":"Planetary nebula","mag":7.4,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":1360,"distance_method":"literature value (curated)","ra_deg":299.90158333333335,"dec_deg":22.721027777777778,"epoch_ra_deg":300.191768,"epoch_dec_deg":22.794146,"epoch_moved_arcsec":null,"pm_ra_mas_yr":null,"pm_dec_mas_yr":null,"position_epoch_jyear":null,"orbits":null,"semi_major_axis_km":null,"periapsis_km":null,"mass_kg":null,"mass_msun":null,"constellation":"Vulpecula","discovered":"1764","featured":true,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/m27","source":{"id":"openngc","name":"OpenNGC","url":"https://github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC","license":"CC-BY-SA-4.0","attribution":"OpenNGC, Mattia Verga (github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC). Fields derived from it stay under CC BY-SA 4.0.","commercial_use":"allowed"},"radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":"The first planetary nebula ever discovered — a Sun-like star's outer layers thrown off and lit from within by the white-hot core left behind.","properties":{"b_mag":7.6,"h_mag":10.61,"j_mag":11.79,"v_mag":7.4,"redshift":-0.00014,"wikidata_id":"Q13628","also_known_as":["Apple Core Nebula","Dumb-Bell Nebula"],"discovered_by":"Charles Messier","ngc_type_code":"PN","major_axis_arcmin":6.7,"wikipedia_article":"Dumbbell Nebula","radial_velocity_km_s":-42},"designations":[{"catalog":"2MASX","designation":"2MASX J19593637+2243157"},{"catalog":"Common name","designation":"Dumbbell Nebula"},{"catalog":"IRAS","designation":"IRAS 19574+2234"},{"catalog":"Messier","designation":"M 27"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 6853"},{"catalog":"PN","designation":"PN G060.8-03.6"}],"updated_at":"2026-10-01T09:42:28.932Z","attribution":"Data from SpaceCatalog.org. Each record names its upstream in `source`, with that producer's terms in `source.license`, the acknowledgement it asks for in `source.attribution`, and whether its terms allow commercial use in `source.commercial_use`; those terms govern the record, and citing SpaceCatalog does not discharge them."}