Never visible without optical aid. Binoculars will show it as a faint blue-grey star if you know precisely where to look.
Never visible without optical aid. Binoculars will show it as a faint blue-grey star if you know precisely where to look.
At the moment Neptune shines at magnitude 7.8 and lies 29.21 astronomical units from Earth. Its position on the sky is right ascension 0.29 hours, declination +0.4°.
Planets shine with a steady light while stars twinkle. That is not folklore: stars are point sources and the atmosphere smears them, whereas a planet presents a tiny disc that averages out the turbulence. If it is bright and calm, it is a planet.