{"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":"2026-08-27T21:33:52.208Z","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-6246","name":"NGC 6246","class":"spiral_galaxy_sb","category":"galaxy","object_type":"Spiral galaxy Sb","mag":13.63,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":251164809.7138783,"distance_method":"redshift (CMB frame), flat ΛCDM with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc","ra_deg":252.46966666666663,"dec_deg":55.54205555555556,"epoch_ra_deg":252.607056,"epoch_dec_deg":55.495005,"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":"Draco","discovered":"1886","featured":false,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/ngc-6246","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":null,"properties":{"b_mag":14.37,"h_mag":11.02,"j_mag":11.71,"k_mag":10.76,"v_mag":13.63,"redshift":0.0178,"hubble_type":"Sb","wikidata_id":"Q977308","redshift_cmb":0.01774208269202937,"discovered_by":"Lewis A. Swift","ngc_type_code":"G","uncertainties":{"distance_ly":[17408721.259917375,17408721.259917375]},"major_axis_arcmin":1.38,"minor_axis_arcmin":0.73,"position_angle_deg":46,"surface_brightness":23.35,"radial_velocity_km_s":5281},"designations":[{"catalog":"2MASX","designation":"2MASX J16495269+5532308"},{"catalog":"IRAS","designation":"IRAS 16488+5537"},{"catalog":"IRAS","designation":"IRAS F16488+5537"},{"catalog":"LEDA","designation":"LEDA 59077"},{"catalog":"MCG","designation":"MCG +09-27-098"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 6246"},{"catalog":"PGC","designation":"PGC 59077"},{"catalog":"UGC","designation":"UGC 10580"}],"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."}