{"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":"2026-08-27T22:30:14.205Z","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":"ngc-3372","name":"Carina Nebula","class":"h_ii_region","category":"nebula","object_type":"H II region","mag":3,"mag_band":"B","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":8500,"distance_method":"literature value (curated)","ra_deg":161.28554166666666,"dec_deg":-59.86669444444445,"epoch_ra_deg":161.543408,"epoch_dec_deg":-60.007608,"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":"Carina","discovered":"1752","featured":true,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/ngc-3372","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":"One of the largest star-forming regions known, containing the unstable hypergiant Eta Carinae, which nearly destroyed itself in an 1843 eruption and still might.","properties":{"b_mag":3,"wikidata_id":"Q50042","also_known_as":["Eta Carina Nebula","Great Nebula in Carina"],"discovered_by":"Nicolas Louis de Lacaille","ngc_type_code":"HII","major_axis_arcmin":120,"minor_axis_arcmin":120,"wikipedia_article":"Carina Nebula"},"designations":[{"catalog":"Caldwell","designation":"C 92"},{"catalog":"Common name","designation":"Carina Nebula"},{"catalog":"Common name","designation":"eta Car Nebula"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 3372"}],"source":{"id":"openngc","name":"OpenNGC","url":"https://github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC","license":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"updated_at":"2026-08-27T19:16:43.430Z","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."}