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Yes, we can see satellites in particular orbits as they pass overhead at night. Viewing is best away from city lights and in cloud-free skies. The satellite will look like a star steadily moving across the sky for a few minutes. If the lights are blinking,you probably are seeing a plane, not a satellite.

Although it is a common misconception that Google Earth images are real-time, they are not. There are, however, two ways to view nearly real-time satellite images on Google Earth. For three-hour old weather images, look for the Clouds layer, found under the new Weather layer folder

It is the same thing with satellites. They have sensors that pick up photons as they fly by. Satellites taking pictures of Earth are usually just taking pictures, same way any digital camera would. Sometimes they will do infrared, might vision type pictures, but mostly it is just regular photos.