Just a short update, after a couple of years 
of experimentation and practice, I can now produce very good observations of LEO satellites with an inexpensive and easily portable system. The key was a “shutter timer” build by a pal of mine in Austin, Texas (AJ Dormer) which very accurately gives me the time that the shutter opens and closes.
I have a used Nikon D300 camera and a 50mm lens (on a tripod of course) and connect the timer to my Mac laptop. Mike McCants confirms that my observations are accurate. So far I have tracked bright (magnitude 5 or so) satellites and have just started tracking dimmer (magnitude 10) satellites, hoping to track even dimmer ones in the cold winter ahead. I am going to try using a fixed focal length, longer, lens to get dimmer satellites.
Can you share some of the images you where able to create ?
