{"release":{"id":"DR1","released_on":"2026-08-21","doi":null,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases#dr1"},"epoch":{"requested":"now","label":"J2026.671","julian_year":2026.671,"time":"2026-09-02T21:45:47.404Z","years_from_j2000":26.671,"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-53","name":"NGC 53","class":"barred_spiral_galaxy_sbb","category":"galaxy","object_type":"Barred spiral galaxy SBb","mag":12.64,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":209387884.18905106,"distance_method":"redshift (CMB frame), flat ΛCDM with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc","ra_deg":3.678541666666667,"dec_deg":-60.32875000000001,"epoch_ra_deg":4.00905,"epoch_dec_deg":-60.179452,"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":"Tucana","discovered":"1836","featured":false,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/ngc-53","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":null,"properties":{"b_mag":13.36,"h_mag":10.02,"j_mag":10.79,"k_mag":10.02,"v_mag":12.64,"redshift":0.015284,"hubble_type":"SBb","wikidata_id":"Q50648","redshift_cmb":0.014823198897900847,"discovered_by":"John Frederick William Herschel","ngc_type_code":"G","uncertainties":{"distance_ly":[16461057.050847404,16461057.050847404]},"major_axis_arcmin":1.54,"minor_axis_arcmin":0.95,"wikipedia_article":"NGC 53","position_angle_deg":178,"surface_brightness":22.69,"radial_velocity_km_s":4547},"designations":[{"catalog":"2MASX","designation":"2MASX J00144279-6019425"},{"catalog":"ESO","designation":"ESO 111-020"},{"catalog":"ESO-LV","designation":"ESO-LV 111-0200"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 53"},{"catalog":"PGC","designation":"PGC 982"}],"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."}