SIGHTING: ROCHESTER, NEW YORK (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I'm a 65 y/o retired navy vet and have viewed a lot in the night skies over many years, both out at sea and living on a high tundra ranch in colorado west of norad. have never seen so much activity as last night and early this morning. making ready to see the lyrid meteor shower peak before dawn i was out around 2200 on the back deck and front porch before bed thinking there may be some stray meteors around then already, but looking west noticed to my right the moving v formation of 6-8 dimmish green tint lights (like sodium street lamps) against a faint dark chevron sillouette moving silently in a straight course due west a bit north of us maybe along the lake ontario shoreline, couldn't really judge altitude at the angle because not a good reference to size, could have been as large across as 2 or 3 football fields, slow enough for me to keep in sight maybe 20 secs before it faded into the western rooftops in the distance, focusing on every detail i could and grasping the fact i'm not seeing something normal, not meteors, landing pattern aircraft, or even a reflective chevron flock of geese crossed my mind since it seemed ghostly and distant, but very distinct and unwavering. my feelings were like when i've witnessed similar things in the past, awe, excitement but even moreso that i'm not in an isolated area alone. i immediately told june, my long time mate, who'd already retired to bed reading and knew i didn't have time to call her out to see it, but is equally excited, we're both skywatchers. the secondary event to this--i went to bed excited, then we got up at 0400 today to watch perhaps the meteors peak on the back deck, and at 0420 saw 3 bright white lights in chevron formation streak downward low it seemed out of the sw over the top of the house banking in a curve to the ne disappearing behind the tall trees. it was quick, in sight about 2-3 secs, recognizable enough to realize it wasn't meteors, and i told june something like, "that was them again, this is really happening!" she hadn't seen that. so we moved around watching every part of the sky we could cover, in a bit she said 'that was it, i saw it go along there', it was 0440, she described 3 lights travelling so low to the horizon so fast it was only a couple seconds before it was lost behind the front of the house facing s, so travelling straightline w to e. the last i saw after she went back in was at 0500 and were dimming in the morning glow but the same or similar v-formation of 3 moving silently and straight nw - se (towards nyc) slower it seemed because i could track them from over the lake to the se horizon for all of 6-7 secs. i stayed around till 0530 when the sky was getting bright."