Midnight December is the time of the end of a calender year time.
"Midnight" represents the darkest and most mysterious time of night, while "December" is a cold and desolate month often associated with death and mourning. The combination of the two words in the poem sets a melancholic and eerie tone.
First of all, Dorado is pretty far south. If you're anywhere north of about 22° north latitude ...the line roughly through Honolulu, Mexico City, Havana, Mecca, Calcutta, Hanoi, and thesouthern tips of Taiwan and Baja California ... you can never see any of Dorado at all.Within the USA, Hawaii is the only state from which any of Dorado is visible.And in order to see all of it, you have to be south of about 13° north latitude ... the line roughlythrough El Salvador, Aruba, Gambia, Yemen, Bangalore and Madras, Bangkok, and Manila.Next: Dorado has no bright stars ... nothing brighter than 3rd magnitude, which is about the samebrightness as the dimmer of the two stars at the end of the Little Dipper's bowl.Just like everything else in the sky, Dorado rises in the east, crosses the sky, and sets in the west.For those positioned in a place where it's visible, here are the approximate times when it's highestin the sky, i.e. due south, on its way toward setting in the west:October 1 . . . . . . 4 AMOctober 15 . . . . . 3 AMNovember 1 . . . . 2 AMNovember 15 . . . 1 AMDecember 1 . . . 12:00 midnightDecember 15 . . 11 PMJanuary 1 . . . . . 10 PMJanuary 15 . . . . . 9 PMFebruary 1 . . . . . 8 PMFebruary 15 . . . . 7 PM