2014-05-02 - Yorktown, VA - Formation

Four, very bright orange spherical lights moving steadily in horizontal trail formation in night sky.

Went outside in the back yard to let our dog out one more time for the night. Dog started barking and running towards fence.

Looked toward eastern sky and initially saw an extremly very bright orange, steady, spherical shaped light moving steadily from the south headed north-northeast and then immediately noticed a second, third and fourth identical bright orange light all moving above the back lot tree line.

Sky was clear with good visibility.

These objects were spaced apart fairly evenly in a horizontal trail configuration. Objects were moving fairly slowly. Estimate possibly ¼ mile between each light. Hard to determine distance from myself, but possibly within one mile. Altitude was medium, possibly 5,000', but difficult to determine due to lack of perspective or sky contrast.

All four objects were identical and displayed no navigation lights, position lights, anti-collision lights, wing lights, or landing lights that are standard aircraft lighting. 

There was absolutely no sound associated with these objects prior, during or after their passage.

I looked around the nearby houses to see if anyone was outside seeing what I was witnessing, but saw no one else.

After observing for maybe 15-20 seconds, I ran inside to grab binoculars. Returning to the back yard, I was able to observe the fourth object for about 10 seconds before it moved out of sight beyond the tree line.

Through the binoculars I observed a very bright, clear orange glowing light and I could faintly make out a dark angular object associated with the light.

These were not military fighter aircraft afterburners either. I live in the vicinity of an F-22 US Air Force Base and these were not F-22s or any other fighter aircraft. There is also a nearby US Army base with helicopters. These were definitely not helicopters of any type either.

I'm a retired US Air Force pilot and I know what aircraft look like at night and am very familiar with the sights and! sounds of local aircraft at night. In fact, as I viewed the fourth object, an MD-80 type commercial airliner flew over my house from front to back (from west to east) at low altitude in the direction of the four orange lights. I believe the airliner was entering the traffic pattern at the local airport preparing to land. The lights and sound of this aircraft provided an excellent contrast with the four objects that I'd just observed.