2012-11-23 - Warwick, NY - Formation

Four lights moved in unison, east to west, sliding across the night sky like a water bug and accelerating to simply vanish.

Approximately 10:00 PM on November 23, 2012 in Warwick, NY.

I went outside to get something from my car. I looked up at the sky and noticed that it was very clear and there were a lot of stars. I was in the driveway facing the east, looking up at the area of the sky not too far above the horizon. My eyes scanned over two bright stars and I noticed 4 small white lights-like a dim cluster- between the stars. I scanned over it quickly and in the split seconds after my eyes passed over the 4 small lights it registered in my mind that the cluster appeared to be moving and that it must be a plane since I was looking towards New York City and there was always air traffic above Warwick(I don't live there, I was visiting there). Those thoughts took place in about 1 or 2 seconds as I returned my focus to the 4 lights. The lights were moving in unison as part of a single object. Initially they appeared to be a square but they rotated slightly as they moved over my head across the sky so as to look more like a diamond shape.

At the moment I focused my eyes on the lights they moved quickly, ‘out’ from between the two bright stars-headed west, directly over my head at such an astonishing speed and in a way that reminded me of a water bug sliding/skimming across water. The 4 lights increased their speed as they sped up across the sky and moved mostly in a straight line but ‘slid’ a bit off the straight line course so there were slight curves in its course and that is what made me think of a water bug. As it moved it dawned on me that no aircraft I know of could accelerate with such speed and at the point I was thinking that, it accelerated more and simply disappeared-blip, gone! That entire sighting lasted no more than 10 or 15 seconds from the point when I looked up, noticed the moving lights and then watched them zip over my head and vanish. My eyes were trained on them the whole time they moved and my head followed them easily as they went overhead. The lights moved in unison and fluidly, like it was sliding rather than flying. I also had the sense that the thing ‘reacted’ to me seeing it, like it had been 'spotted," largely because it happened so fast and it zipped away the moment that I focused my eyes on it.

It happened so fast and I stood out there for a few minutes considering what just happened and wondering if my eyes had played a trick on me. I focused on other objects to see if anything atmospheric (cold night air on my eyeballs making them water?) might make them ‘appear’ to move. It did not happen with any other object. I looked around for other moving objects and I saw a jet and noticed that its lights were not at all like what I had seen. I went inside and told my family and then went on-line to investigate what the stars were where I first noticed the object. They were two bright stars that make up the center portion of Orion.