{"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":"2026-08-27T17:42:17.393Z","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":"m59","name":"M59","class":"elliptical_galaxy_e","category":"galaxy","object_type":"Elliptical galaxy E","mag":9.56,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":null,"distance_method":null,"ra_deg":190.50933333333333,"dec_deg":11.647027777777778,"epoch_ra_deg":190.848071,"epoch_dec_deg":11.499744,"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":"Virgo","discovered":"1779","featured":false,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/m59","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":null,"properties":{"b_mag":10.57,"h_mag":6.97,"j_mag":7.65,"k_mag":6.75,"v_mag":9.56,"redshift":0.001438,"hubble_type":"E","wikidata_id":"Q13971","redshift_cmb":0.0025169296239131445,"discovered_by":"Johann Gottfried Koehler","ngc_type_code":"G","major_axis_arcmin":4.55,"minor_axis_arcmin":3.21,"wikipedia_article":"Messier 59","position_angle_deg":165,"surface_brightness":22.71,"radial_velocity_km_s":431},"designations":[{"catalog":"2MASX","designation":"2MASX J12420232+1138489"},{"catalog":"LEDA","designation":"LEDA 42628"},{"catalog":"MCG","designation":"MCG +02-32-183"},{"catalog":"Messier","designation":"M 59"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 4621"},{"catalog":"PGC","designation":"PGC 42628"},{"catalog":"SDSS","designation":"SDSS J124202.25+113848.8"},{"catalog":"UGC","designation":"UGC 7858"}],"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."}