{"release":{"id":"DR1","released_on":"2026-08-21","doi":null,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases#dr1"},"epoch":{"requested":"now","label":"J2026.684","julian_year":2026.684,"time":"2026-09-07T22:41:00.532Z","years_from_j2000":26.684,"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":"ngc-1540a","name":"NGC 1540A","class":"spiral_galaxy_sa","category":"galaxy","object_type":"Spiral galaxy Sa","mag":14.61,"mag_band":"B","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":263052665.1295578,"distance_method":"redshift (CMB frame), flat ΛCDM with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc","ra_deg":63.79170833333334,"dec_deg":-28.482083333333332,"epoch_ra_deg":64.063734,"epoch_dec_deg":-28.414267,"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":"Eridanus","discovered":"1834","featured":false,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/ngc-1540a","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":null,"properties":{"b_mag":14.61,"h_mag":13.1,"j_mag":13.79,"k_mag":13.07,"redshift":0.018766,"hubble_type":"Sa","wikidata_id":"Q1043945","redshift_cmb":0.018570397975878006,"discovered_by":"John Frederick William Herschel","ngc_type_code":"G","uncertainties":{"distance_ly":[17698352.909364935,17698352.909364935]},"major_axis_arcmin":0.56,"minor_axis_arcmin":0.38,"position_angle_deg":50,"surface_brightness":21.92,"radial_velocity_km_s":5573},"designations":[{"catalog":"ESO","designation":"ESO 420-14A"},{"catalog":"ESO-LV","designation":"ESO-LV 420-0141"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 1540A"}],"source":{"id":"openngc","name":"OpenNGC","url":"https://github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC","license":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"updated_at":"2026-09-02T19:50:56.720Z","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."}