The best explaination for what they saw was that it was one of the panels that connected the Saturn IV with the Apollo SM. After TLI they would blow the bolts on these panels to separate the stack and the booster, then turn the CSM to remove the LM. Unlike early versions, on the actual missions the panels completely seperated from the Booster and so floated along behind the CSM/LM Stack in a similar orbit while the booster performs a further burn after the LM extraction. It also explains the change in shape because it would have been a long trapizium curved panel so as it rotated in the sunlight it would have appeared to be different shapes.
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