Why Birth Time Rectification?

No birth time is correct. It needs correction up to seconds, not minutes.
KN Rao, Editor of Astrology Journal

Definition of Real Birth Time

The real birth time we define here as the exact moment when the newborns lungs first start to fill with air: The first breath. Then this new body starts to interact with our earths atmosphere, and never really stops breathing as long as it lives. This moment can be defined up to 1 second accuracy, and even up to fractions of a second if you wish to do so.

Why Birth Times Are Inaccurate?

Inaccurate time of birth There are many influences that lead to a wrong information about the real birth time. Naturally, the mother is too busy to look at a clock during child birth. And often those who help at birth are far too excited to take care of the exact birth time recording. The birth time recording is fairly accurate in most countries today, but it was not required some 50 years ago. Even now it is not required in a few countries or regions.
In addition to the great excitement at birth, consider that clocks usually are off the correct time by several minutes. Plus or minus 5 minutes are often considered a fairly accurate time keeping.
Another inaccuracy factor is the rounding up or down to the nearest quarter of an hour by midwives or hospital personal. Even rounding up or down to the nearest half an hour was common practice in most countries 50 years ago. All those factors can add up, and create quite a wrong, imaginary birth time.

How Inaccurate is Your Birth Time?

There are several indicators that can tell you how much your known birth time information is off your real birth time. Check for the following indicators:

Birth Time Information Sources

Mothers usually are a better source than fathers. A father, who had to wait so long for the blessed event, usually is too nervous to care about the exact birth time when the child arrives.
Mothers with many children may confuse their various birth times. Such a birth time information would be completely wrong (up to 24 hours).
An exception are parents who do care about astrology. Expect their time recording to be correct within plus/minus two minutes. Yet, even then faulty clocks have to be accounted for (plus/minus 5 minutes).
Other relatives are usually not so very reliable regarding an exact birth time.
Birth certificates are fairly accurate (within plus/minus 5 minutes) if the cultural tradition of your country at the time of your birth supported precision in such official recordings. Only a certified birth certificate, or a certified copy of birth certificate are reliable. When you request your birth certificate, make sure to ask for your birth time specifically.

AM/PM Mixup

If your mother or other relatives are not sure whether your birth time is AM or PM that indicates a birth time inaccuracy of a bit more than 12 hours.

Birth Times Around Midnight

If you are not absolutely sure whether you have been born before or after midnight it means that you do not know whether your birth date is the day before midnight, or the one after midnight. This then would indicate an inaccuracy of 24 hours.

General Time Indicators

If you do not know the correct birth hours, but know that you are born at night, find out whether it was before or after midnight. If you can get that information, assume a birth time inaccuracy of 6 to 8 hours. If you are not sure about before or after midnight, you must assume an inaccuracy of 24 hours.
If you know of your birth at the early morning hours, late morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, evening hours, try to find out from your elders whether they remember events that happened around your birth. From those events often you can conclude how accurate your birth time is.

Inaccurate Birth Place

Any inaccuracy of your exact birth place (especially in east-west direction) can show up like additional minutes of inaccuracy in your birth time. Be aware of this fact when you are born in large cities or metropolitan areas, and when you do not know the exact co-ordinates of your birth place.

Rounding Errors

If your birth time is given accurately to one minute (final digits 1...4, 6...9), assume a rounding error of plus/minus 2 minutes.
If the last digit of your birth time minutes is a 5, assume plus/minus 5 minutes of rounding error.
If the last digit is a 0, assume a rounding error of plus/minus 10 minutes.
If the minutes are 15 or 45, assume a rounding error of plus/minus 15 minutes.
If the minutes are 30, assume a rounding error of plus/minus 30 minutes.
If the minutes are 0, assume a rounding error of plus/minus 1 hour.
Add plus/minus 5 minutes of a possibly wrong clock on top of all those rounding errors.

What Can I Use Those Numbers For?

Horoscope Rectification Once you have arrived at a number in terms of hours, minutes, and possibly seconds of inaccuracy of your birth time, you have an input to the birth time calculators. The various birth time calculators tell you exactly to what extent your birth time information can blur the results of astrological predictions.

From there you can evaluate whether you want to get a more precise birth time, either by obtaining birth certificates copies, or by having a birth time correction (rectification). Your individual birth time is that one point in time when you started to interact with the earths atmosphere, and from where any astrological prediction starts.

This page may appear very theoretical to you. To understand the influence of inaccurate birth times more easily and intuitively, simply play and have fun with the various birth time calculators, or vedic birth time calculators.

[BirthTime Astrology] [Your Time of Birth] [Inaccurate Birth Times] [Birth Certificate Replacement] [Knowledge] [Birth Time Check] [Birth Time Calculators] [Moon Sign Calculator] [Zodiac Calculator] [Solar Arc Calculator] [Vedic Birth Time Calc] [Nakshatra Calculator] [Dasha Calculator] [Welcome and Contact] [Astrology Directory] [New Age Directory]