2012-04-07 - Spokane, WA - Triangle

I saw four lights in perfect formation at about 60 thousand feet.

At approximately 7:40 am I was sitting in my hot tub facing south-west. At first I saw one white light traveling way slower than an airplane and even slower than a satellite. I thought maybe someone had let a balloon loose but it was so high I thought it was doubtful. I am pretty sure the altitude was twice as high as an airplane flies, so maybe 60,000 feet? I am a private pilot so I have a little bit of experience with judging altitude, but it is hard to say because of not really knowing what I was looking at.

After about 10 seconds I noticed a second and then third light that formed a perfect triangle. The front light was white and the side lights were red, not solid red, but reddish. After a few more seconds I saw the fourth and final light. It was white and trailed the front white light by 3 to 4 times the distance from the front light to either of the red lights. So what I saw was a perfect triangle of white in front and red on both side and then the trailing light.

Why I am intrigued with what I saw is because of the perfect geometry of the shape. The lights were traveling from south west to north east. As it turns out I had a perfect view from my hot tub. The lights travelled directly above my head. I think it took between 10 and 12 minutes from about 30 degrees from horizon to about 120 degrees of horizon. I am not sure if that is how you describe it but I am thinking 180 degrees spectrum.

I am not sure what I saw, but I have never seen anything like it in the past.