<p>It was here on the west coast at 5 am pacific standard time when I went outside for a smoke when out of the corner of my eye what looks like a plane with flashing lights going across the sky when all of a sudden there was another... and another... and another! For more than 15 minutes I watched these "planes" flying overhead in a single file line formation. There's no way that many planes or satellites traveling in a single file line formation from the east, over the pacific ocean, to the west and heading inland. I've NEVER seen anything like that before in my almost 30 years of living and stargazing. WHAT DID I SEE?!?! I have to know because this was by no means a normal evening/morning. To top it off there were other "planes" or "satellites" flying in the same direction as the others traveling in the single file line formation almost as if they were off course and ended up flying outside of the designated flight pattern. Nothing I've looked up explains this... Why? The date is april 12th 2020 and even though it's a pretty old phone I got a 3 and a half minute video before I went back inside to look them up on the internet only to find NOTHING. The sun is peaking and starting to hide the stars and I CAN STILL SEE the single file line formation of flashing plane lights in the sky traveling overhead more than 30 minutes later. What on gods green earth did I witness?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T14:10:14.800Z
Probably Elon's Starlink
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T14:25:52.523Z
I might note that on **this** site we currently have questions titled "I see objects at sky that goes straight same way" and "Line of “stars” following one another" on the first page of active questions. so your search of the internet seems to have been rather cursory.
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T14:30:50.630Z
Nope! Absolutely was not Elon's Starlink. Just looked up a video of it and that was not what I saw. The lights were flashing like commercial planes or helicopters in the night sky and they were spread much further apart from each other and traveling at a much slower speed. Much like I said before, they weren't all traveling in the single file line formation. 2 crossed paths, with 1 going a slightly different direction, but were indeed flying together. Multiple times my mom and I caught randoms off the single file formation line following along side the rest only not in line like the others...
Justarandomgamer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T15:11:18.657Z
Okay,  I've checked and Elon's satellites were going past the west coast at 5am but if that wasn't them then this is a "flashing light ufo" report.  We don't know what is was. We can't tell you. It was not an astronomical object, since no astronomical object could ever be described as "flashing".  Therefore we can't answer the question. Sorry about that.
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T17:24:39.937Z
So you chop up my question as a flashing light ufo report and link it to some bologna that doesn't even similarly compare to my experience to mark it as answered even though you read my question and knew full well I said "flashing" multiple times? By that logic I can safely assume that your observation of my question and question title seems to have been rather cursory.
Justarandomgamer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-12T18:33:48.570Z
Just to be clear with you even if it's not Elon Musk's fiasco that you saw, what you saw *still* isn't a topic for Astronomy SE.  We just don't do UFO reports.  Try contacting air traffic control people in your area and establish what traffic was active.  Your question would probably be closed now anyway and marked as duplicate of [something like this](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/11634/star-like-light-moving-in-the-sky-what-could-it-be).
StephenG - Help Ukraine
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-13T00:19:11.843Z
If it wasn't a StarLink constellation, it might have been a constellation of semi-autonomous drones. They can do pretty fancy things these days. Post your footage if you still have it.
Mick
<orbit><planet><distances><photography><orbital-mechanics>
What was that single file line formation of flashing plane lights flying in the sky at night?
Justarandomgamer
# What was that single file line formation of flashing plane lights flying in the sky at night?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-04-12)

It was here on the west coast at 5 am pacific standard time when I went outside for a smoke when out of the corner of my eye what looks like a plane with flashing lights going across the sky when all of a sudden there was another... and another... and another! For more than 15 minutes I watched these "planes" flying overhead in a single file line formation. There's no way that many planes or satellites traveling in a single file line formation from the east, over the pacific ocean, to the west and heading inland. I've NEVER seen anything like that before in my almost 30 years of living and stargazing. WHAT DID I SEE?!?! I have to know because this was by no means a normal evening/morning. To top it off there were other "planes" or "satellites" flying in the same direction as the others traveling in the single file line formation almost as if they were off course and ended up flying outside of the designated flight pattern. Nothing I've looked up explains this... Why? The date is april 12th 2020 and even though it's a pretty old phone I got a 3 and a half minute video before I went back inside to look them up on the internet only to find NOTHING. The sun is peaking and starting to hide the stars and I CAN STILL SEE the single file line formation of flashing plane lights in the sky traveling overhead more than 30 minutes later. What on gods green earth did I witness?

**Tags:** orbit, planet, distances, photography, orbital-mechanics

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Probably Elon's Starlink  
> **username_1**: I might note that on **this** site we currently have questions titled "I see objects at sky that goes straight same way" and "Line of “stars” following one another" on the first page of active questions. so your search of the internet seems to have been rather cursory.  
> **username_0**: Nope! Absolutely was not Elon's Starlink. Just looked up a video of it and that was not what I saw. The lights were flashing like commercial planes or helicopters in the night sky and they were spread much further apart from each other and traveling at a much slower speed. Much like I said before, they weren't all traveling in the single file line formation. 2 crossed paths, with 1 going a slightly different direction, but were indeed flying together. Multiple times my mom and I caught randoms off the single file formation line following along side the rest only not in line like the others...  
> **username_1**: Okay,  I've checked and Elon's satellites were going past the west coast at 5am but if that wasn't them then this is a "flashing light ufo" report.  We don't know what is was. We can't tell you. It was not an astronomical object, since no astronomical object could ever be described as "flashing".  Therefore we can't answer the question. Sorry about that.  
> **username_0**: So you chop up my question as a flashing light ufo report and link it to some bologna that doesn't even similarly compare to my experience to mark it as answered even though you read my question and knew full well I said "flashing" multiple times? By that logic I can safely assume that your observation of my question and question title seems to have been rather cursory.  
> **username_2**: Just to be clear with you even if it's not Elon Musk's fiasco that you saw, what you saw *still* isn't a topic for Astronomy SE.  We just don't do UFO reports.  Try contacting air traffic control people in your area and establish what traffic was active.  Your question would probably be closed now anyway and marked as duplicate of [something like this](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/11634/star-like-light-moving-in-the-sky-what-could-it-be).  
> **username_3**: If it wasn't a StarLink constellation, it might have been a constellation of semi-autonomous drones. They can do pretty fancy things these days. Post your footage if you still have it.  

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## 0 answers

