I enjoy the thrill of something simple yet unexpected like a passing satellite too, and I'm also a newbie. I too have found the Orion region productive recently for passing satellites due to it's low altitude around the end of twilight. There's plenty of reflected light from below the horizon to illuminate any satellite in the area quite well.
My biggest thrill of this nature came only 2-3 weeks ago, was checking out the M42 area yet again when a satellite passed through my field of view (one of 3 this evening I think) so I started tracking along with it. Luckily I had my brand new 30mm Ultra-Wide eyepiece in the focusser.
As I followed it I realised I had a second satellite in my field of view too, same direction of travel, similar path, but somewhat ahead and moving slower. Not only was my satellite overtaking it but they were slowly converging! I tracked them both, mentally calculating how far they would go before they crossed paths, and how close they would be when this happened. When the slower sat finally crossed in front of my original target it was only about 20% of the field of view ahead. As they diverged again my faster original target overtook the newcomer and eventually left it behind.
I'm sure this kind of thing happens all the time if you happen to be looking, but to me it sure felt like a million to one event!
