[masraum]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Finally, you won't see anything but a bright dot, even with the camera and tracking. The ISS is HUGE and it's only about the same apparent angular size as Jupiter under the best of conditions, most satellites would be un-resolved even with a telescope.

Mike, I will concede that you have probably forgotten far more about astronomy and telescopes than I know or probably ever will.

But....

You can absolutely see the shape and structure of ISS through a telescope. I have some 20x60 binoculars through which ISS is just a bright spot in the sky, but my old Zhummel 8" Newt/dob with a 25mm EP (48x) absolutely allowed me to see structure and form of ISS (it was really, REALLY hard to hand track that even when I probably had 120-140* of sky to track through).

Every other satellite that I've seen (more than a few, except Iridium flares) are nothing more than a tiny dot. It's always fun to have one scoot through your view when observing something else. I've also, since I now live in the heart of Houston, used Stellarium to specifically watch some satellites. Other than ISS, they look the same through a 20x60 binocular as they do through an 8" telescope at 200x.