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In short
Birth-time rectification means working out a more exact birth time than the one recorded, so that the Ascendant and houses can be trusted. BPHS and Saravali deal with a lost birth time through a horary chart. This app does not rectify: it computes the chart for the time it is given, and shows what changes when that time is uncertain.
What the term means
Rectification is the attempt to settle a birth time more exactly than it was recorded. It matters because of the Ascendant: the rising degree moves fast, so a recorded time a few minutes out can change the rising sign, the houses and the finer divisional charts, while the planets barely move. The Moon's position, and so the dasha dates, move too, more slowly.
Where the term comes from
The classical texts treat a related but different problem: a birth time that is lost altogether. BPHS Ch. 78 Sl. 1-4 has Maitreya ask whether results can be known when the time of birth is not, and Parashara answers that the details "can be ascertained from Prasna Lagn", the chart of the moment of asking; Sl. 8-9 then derive the birth time and the positions from it. Saravali does the same through a horary chart in Ch. 48 and Ch. 52. When these translations say "rectification" elsewhere, they mean an arithmetic correction, such as the "rectification of rays" in Saravali Ch. 36 Sl. 7-9, not a birth time.
How this app handles it
- It does not rectify, by either the classical route or by working back from life events. The chart is computed for exactly the time entered.
- It measures instead. Run for 19 January 1985 in New Delhi, the engine moves the Ascendant from Pisces 21.64 at 11:10 to Pisces 24.43 at 11:18, crossing from the second to the third pada of Revati, and to Aries 3.35 by 11:44. The Moon stays in Mula throughout.
- Without any time it casts the chart at noon, computes no Ascendant or houses, and reports the Moon at both ends of the birth date; when the birth time is unknown explains what that leaves.
Pages that use this term
- When the birth time is unknown - what can and cannot be read without one.
- Nakshatra sub-lord and birth time - how many minutes a sub-lord survives.
- Lagna calculator - states plainly that it does not rectify.
- Shashtiamsa (D60) calculator - the chart most sensitive to the time, and no rectification.
- Prashna calculator - the horary chart the classical method starts from.
- Methodology - how far a few minutes move the dasha dates.
Related terms
- Lagna - the sign most at risk from a wrong time.
- Prashna - horary astrology, the classical route for a lost time.
- Shashtiamsa - the half-degree division.
- Pada - a quarter-nakshatra the Ascendant crosses in minutes.