It appears as a streak because the camera shutter was open for 3 seconds as the Space Shuttle moved across the field. The trail persisted for about a minute. My photo was published in Sky and Telescope magazine Feb 1997 and used by the astronauts in their post-flight lectures. Click here for a larger JPG 32k , of this image. Satellite observing is easy to do and requires no special equipment.
Many satellites are visible to the naked eye.
All that is required is a computer program to determine when the satellite will pass over your location. My favorite, and one of the easiest to use is Nova For Windows . These programs need very current sets of orbital elements for the satellites. If the orbital elements are more than a few weeks old you will not get accurate predictions. So you need to download current elements.