NUFORC Sighting 135572

Occurred: 2013-10-01 20:00 Local
Reported: 2017-08-05 19:47 Pacific
Duration: 5-10 minutes
No of observers: 20

Location: Marfa (near), TX, USA

Shape: Rectangle
Characteristics: Emitted beams

A few questions about ISS

Rather than a report, this is more of a question.

When the government was shut down between October 1 to 16, 2013, my wife & I went to far West Texas. One night we visited the Marfa Lights Viewing Area, a first class TDOT facility for viewing the Marfa Lights. (We've seen the lights in the past, but not this night.) There were a couple of college science professors there. One guy, who I think was a college professor, shouted out, "The Space Station is overhead." A very large object is seen above, Maneuvering all around. You could easily see details of the object. It looked very similar to photos of the space station taken through powerful telescopes.

It turned, went north for a bit and seemed to be repositioning itself. It could certainly maneuver some rather than just fly in orbit. This object did not appear to be over 8-10 miles up, but who knows. It appeared to be white. I do not know exactly how long it was in sight. My questions are. From ground level, how much detail can one see of the ISS, even in very clear skies like are usually found in far West Texas? Does ISS move into much lower orbits from time to time? Does it stay in a perfect orbit? I'm asking this now because I recently viewed several photos taken from the ground w/o a telephoto lens. In those photos the ISS looks much more like a satellite than the huge object we saw in detail.

The time was just after dark. I am not sure of the exact date but feel it was possibly a Friday or Saturday.

Posted 2017-08-11