Formation over Mastic, NY

The report, as filed

I have never seen anything in the sky that I could not find some explanation for. I was outside on the front porch with my mother for a cigarette. She pointed toward the sky behind me, suddenly very animated. I turned around, still sitting, and saw what looked like huge glowing orange lights in a perfect V formation moving in sync over the trees across the street. It was silently heading our way in a cluster. We hurried to get a closer look and stood watching from the highway. About three more appeared as if out of nowhere; if anything they were already up and lowered to meet the rest as opposed to floating up or rising. They were moving together, the first three more in sync though the spaces between them were not perfectly in unison as we continued to watch them head our way. My mom was panicked and thought they were actually coming to us, since we were the only people out watching (it was a little before 11pm and we are mostly surrounded by shopping cente! rs that were closed.) They had to be either very big or not that high, though higher than the trees. The first three then began to curve around and turn away, going over the lake and disappearing. The rest followed suit one by one, becoming more of a line and getting smaller as they travelled away from us. They all vanished into the sky except for one, which slowly glided away before it was blocked by the top of some buildings or condos over on the further side of the lake. I have heard of orange lights before but until you see it, you don't understand how far out and perplexing it can be. My mother kept saying how she felt like it was aware of us and though I do not like to make such quick assumptions, it felt a bit eerie. I had tried taking a picture but they didn't show on the camera preview on my phone, possibly because of street light glare. I did a search online and am going to keep checking to see if anyone else saw this but so far (its been 30 mins since it happened! ) nothing else has come up for tonight though I'm reading acco! unts fro m five days ago around NY and before that the same description was in Britain. I read "explanations" blaming Chinese Lanterns. These were not Lanterns. I've seen Lanterns set off in the sky at night, I've seen balloons with flames set off at festivals, air balloons, sky divers, flares, this was nothing like that. They moved with precision. My stomach is still fluttering. It was like a one time event sighting. In my mother's 56 years she has never seen anything like it. My window faces the sky where she first spotted them. I think I'll be on watch all night...

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #114316). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.