2021-02-19 - Surprise, AZ - Light

I am in the habit of gazing at the night sky now that I am retired. On the 19th February, 2021, around 04:40, I was watching a satellite pass from the northwest to the southeast. I see satellites quite often, being a distance away from the bright city lights of Phoenix. I like to watch for the ISS passing over as well, (it was due to fly over at 05:59), so I do know the difference in speed and altitude. Shortly after the satellite passed into the horizon, came a string of lights unlike anything I have ever seen.

The string of lights looked as if they were the same altitude as the satellite I had been watching. They were moving in the exact same direction and at about the same speed as the first satellite.

Here is the approximate formation and number of the lights: . … .. . .. …. . . . … .. .. … . . . . … …. . . . .. . .. . . … . … … . .. . .. . . .. … .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .

My camera on my phone would not have captured the string of lights as they were too high. There were no aircraft in the area, no clouds and no ground lighting that would have reached that altitude. There was no sound. The string of lights trailed off one by one, but the leading lights continued toward the southeast all in the same straight line as the original satellite.

I would be very interested to know if anyone else saw these lights over the Phoenix area.