{"release":{"id":"DR1","released_on":"2026-08-21","doi":null,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases#dr1"},"epoch":{"requested":"now","label":"J2026.669","julian_year":2026.669,"time":"2026-09-02T10:28:25.260Z","years_from_j2000":26.669,"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-4976","name":"NGC 4976","class":"elliptical_galaxy_e","category":"galaxy","object_type":"Elliptical galaxy E","mag":10.08,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":77447786.61272386,"distance_method":"redshift (CMB frame), flat ΛCDM with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc","ra_deg":197.156375,"dec_deg":-49.50641666666667,"epoch_ra_deg":197.550143,"epoch_dec_deg":-49.649774,"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":"Centaurus","discovered":"1835","featured":false,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/ngc-4976","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":null,"properties":{"b_mag":10.97,"h_mag":7.12,"j_mag":7.76,"k_mag":6.85,"v_mag":10.08,"redshift":0.00471,"hubble_type":"E","wikidata_id":"Q1116069","redshift_cmb":0.005521247612732871,"discovered_by":"John Frederick William Herschel","ngc_type_code":"G","uncertainties":{"distance_ly":[14379507.450486993,14379507.450486993]},"major_axis_arcmin":5.83,"minor_axis_arcmin":3.27,"wikipedia_article":"NGC 4976","position_angle_deg":161,"surface_brightness":23.63,"radial_velocity_km_s":1409},"designations":[{"catalog":"2MASX","designation":"2MASX J13083752-4930230"},{"catalog":"ESO","designation":"ESO 219-029"},{"catalog":"ESO","designation":"ESO 219-29"},{"catalog":"ESO-LV","designation":"ESO-LV 219-0290"},{"catalog":"LEDA","designation":"LEDA 45562"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 4976"},{"catalog":"PGC","designation":"PGC 45562"}],"source":{"id":"openngc","name":"OpenNGC","url":"https://github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC","license":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"updated_at":"2026-09-01T22:58:55.274Z","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."}