{"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":"2026-10-12T05:52:16.709Z","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":"ngc-4697","name":"NGC 4697","class":"elliptical_galaxy_e","category":"galaxy","object_type":"Elliptical galaxy E","mag":9.37,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":72568593.85683289,"distance_method":"redshift (CMB frame), flat ΛCDM with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc","ra_deg":192.14950000000002,"dec_deg":-5.80075,"epoch_ra_deg":192.497681,"epoch_dec_deg":-5.947732,"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":"Virgo","discovered":"1784","featured":false,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/ngc-4697","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":null,"properties":{"b_mag":10.25,"h_mag":6.59,"j_mag":7.24,"k_mag":6.37,"v_mag":9.37,"redshift":0.004044,"hubble_type":"E","wikidata_id":"Q729053","redshift_cmb":0.005174768121737783,"discovered_by":"William Herschel","ngc_type_code":"G","uncertainties":{"distance_ly":[14334535.95060009,14334535.95060009]},"major_axis_arcmin":7.14,"minor_axis_arcmin":4.16,"wikipedia_article":"NGC 4697","position_angle_deg":83,"surface_brightness":23.36,"radial_velocity_km_s":1210},"designations":[{"catalog":"2MASX","designation":"2MASX J12483590-0548030"},{"catalog":"Caldwell","designation":"C 52"},{"catalog":"LEDA","designation":"LEDA 43276"},{"catalog":"MCG","designation":"MCG -01-33-010"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 4697"},{"catalog":"PGC","designation":"PGC 43276"},{"catalog":"UGCA","designation":"UGCA 300"}],"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."}