{"release":{"id":"DR1","released_on":"2026-08-21","doi":null,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases#dr1"},"epoch":{"requested":"now","label":"J2026.675","julian_year":2026.675,"time":"2026-09-04T15:17:28.632Z","years_from_j2000":26.675,"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-6987","name":"NGC 6987","class":"elliptical_galaxy_e","category":"galaxy","object_type":"Elliptical galaxy E","mag":12.45,"mag_band":"V","abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":240259764.13961497,"distance_method":"redshift (CMB frame), flat ΛCDM with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc","ra_deg":314.5431666666666,"dec_deg":-48.63030555555556,"epoch_ra_deg":315.009395,"epoch_dec_deg":-48.526622,"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":"Indus","discovered":"1834","featured":false,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/ngc-6987","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":null,"properties":{"b_mag":13.45,"h_mag":9.59,"j_mag":10.3,"k_mag":9.28,"v_mag":12.45,"redshift":0.017555,"hubble_type":"E","wikidata_id":"Q1148927","redshift_cmb":0.016981366441518153,"discovered_by":"John Frederick William Herschel","ngc_type_code":"G","uncertainties":{"distance_ly":[17150487.45476252,17150487.45476252]},"major_axis_arcmin":2.03,"minor_axis_arcmin":1.63,"position_angle_deg":125,"surface_brightness":23.85,"radial_velocity_km_s":5217},"designations":[{"catalog":"2MASX","designation":"2MASX J20581033-4837491"},{"catalog":"ESO","designation":"ESO 235-021"},{"catalog":"ESO","designation":"ESO 235-21"},{"catalog":"ESO-LV","designation":"ESO-LV 235-0210"},{"catalog":"IRAS","designation":"IRAS 20546-4849"},{"catalog":"IRAS","designation":"IRAS F20547-4849"},{"catalog":"LEDA","designation":"LEDA 65807"},{"catalog":"NGC","designation":"NGC 6987"},{"catalog":"PGC","designation":"PGC 65807"}],"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."}