2022-04-21 - Flat Rock, MI - Cigar

Saw an amber string of lights fly west to east at airliner altitude, then seemingly faded into a perfectly clear night sky.

Saw a long singular light string in the distance in the western sky not far above the horizon. Appeared an off white light, like a car headlight color. The object continued moving across from west to east. As the object moved closer, the light string appeared to be a collection of lights spaced closely together, but a more amber color. They did not appear to be at a high altitude like a passing satellite would be, but rather at an altitude lower than an airliner would fly.

As the object was directly overhead, you could make out about 15-20 of these lights moving at a consistent speed. They were separated from each other, but not too far apart, about as far apart as a string of white Christmas lights are. They were bright; the light they emitted was about as bright as a jet's lights passing overhead and certainly more brighter than a star light. The light was amber in color, like a car's fog lights/parking light. There was a silhouette surrounding the string of lights, I would describe it as a zeppelin/blimp shape. It was similar in color to the night sky, although a little lighter to notice a contrast between the lights and the silhouette. It was clearly a continuous oval that surrounded the whole light string. Basing off the brightness of the lights and the definition of the surrounding silhouette shape, the object couldn't have been more than 10,000' above us. The object made it just a little more past being directly overhead towards the eastern sky, then rapidly faded away (about 3-5 seconds from being totally brilliant to disappearing) there was not a cloud in the sky that night. It was almost as if the lights just simply turned off and the object disappeared from view. No noise at all, just the lights and the silhouette surrounding the lights.

It definitely did not seem like just a string of passing satellites; they were emitting light like a car headlight in the distance and were more amber in color than white like a passing satellite, they seemed lower than orbit, and they were slower than a passing satellite. Also, every picture/video I've seen of the starlinks showed so many satellites, like hundreds of them and a string of lights that stretched across the sky. These lights were not that many in quantity and not that long. I would have believed it was starlinks had it not a) been those characteristics I just described, and b) had it not simply faded into the night sky when there was zero clouds/obstructions in the sky. The pictures I'm uploading don't do it justice, they did not appear as white as they do in the pictures, and they did not show the silhouette and the separation between the lights. The first darker picture was taken over the western sky and with an iPhone 10S without the night mode. One of the brighter pictures was taken again over the western sky, and the other was taken a little before it was directly overhead. Both of the brighter pictures were taken with an iPhone 11 with night mode.

I'm sorry for wasting whoever's time with this if these are characteristics of starlinks and you rule it as such. Like I said, I would have believed it was starlinks, but those few characteristics and the fact that it faded into the sky. It probably was starlinks, but after doing research all night I still have a gut feeling that it was more than just starlinks. Sorry again if you rule these as the starlinks, I just have a feeling that they were something else hence why I'm doing this report. Thank you for your time.