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Delta T

GET /v1/delta-t — Get the Delta T value (UT1 to TT correction) for a given moment.

Delta T

Delta T (ΔT) is the difference between Terrestrial Time (TT) and Universal Time (UT1). It accounts for the irregular rotation of the Earth and is essential for converting between time scales used in astronomical computation.

GET  /v1/delta-t
POST /v1/delta-t

Credit cost: 1

Parameters

ParameterTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
datetimestringOne of datetime or jdISO 8601 UTC datetime
jdnumberOne of datetime or jdJulian Day in UT1

Response

{
  "data": {
    "delta_t_seconds": 69.184,
    "delta_t_days": 0.000800741,
    "jd_tt": 2460388.000801
  },
  "meta": { "..." }
}
FieldTypeDescription
delta_t_secondsnumberΔT in seconds
delta_t_daysnumberΔT in Julian Days (seconds / 86400)
jd_ttnumberThe input Julian Day converted to Terrestrial Time

Examples

curl "https://api.morphemeris.com/v1/delta-t?datetime=2024-03-20T12:00:00Z" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer morphemeris_live_YOUR_KEY"
const res = await fetch(
  "https://api.morphemeris.com/v1/delta-t?datetime=2024-03-20T12:00:00Z",
  { headers: { Authorization: "Bearer morphemeris_live_YOUR_KEY" } }
);
const data = await res.json();
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.morphemeris.com/v1/delta-t",
    params={"datetime": "2024-03-20T12:00:00Z"},
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer morphemeris_live_YOUR_KEY"},
)
data = res.json()

For current dates, ΔT is approximately 69 seconds. For historical dates, it can vary significantly — over 7,000 seconds for dates around 500 BCE.

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