A year or two ago, I went out in the wee hours to see the space station with shuttle Discovery parked nearby, fly over. That was really impressive. They appeared as two bright points of light, close together, rose in the southwest over the mountains and flew overhead and disappeared into the early morning dawn.
Saw them again the next night, only this time Discovery had moved about 40 miles away from the station. They were quite a bit farther apart than the previous night.
What was neat about it was that the whole show, horizon to horizon, lasted 3 or 4 minutes, and I really could get an appreciation of their speed!
It was a crystal clear, dark night here in Colorado so conditions for viewing were perfect at 5000 feet plus, elevation. Amazing sight!