Can Venus ever be seen from Toronto, Canada at midnight?

Hi Roy,

>My question is quite easy to pose: Can the planet Venus be seen from
>Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at midnight EST/EDT during the last 100
>years and 100 years from now?

Venus never appears more than 47 degrees away from the Sun, so it
never rises or sets more than three hours before or after the Sun.

Toronto is at about 44 degrees north latitude, which means the latest
sunset of the year there is three hours before midnight. Because of
daylight saving time, the earliest sunrise of the year is more hours
away from midnight than is the latest sunset.

So there is a slim chance Venus could be just above the western
horizon at midnight in Toronto, if Venus' greatest eastern elongation
>from the Sun happened to occur very close to the northern hemisphere
summer solstice. But I wouldn't recommend choosing this time to study
the planet as it would be dimmed by the long path through the Earth's
atmosphere near the horizon!

If the answer is very important to you, you could calculate an exact
view using one of the many popular sky simulation packages. "Dance of
the Planets" has had good reviews in magazines such as "Sky &
Telescope" and "Astronomy".

Best wishes,
-Neal.

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