Between 9 And 11 Orange Lights Seen In The Sky Over Grosse Pointe Park Michigan

Date:  January 12, 2013
Time:  Evening.

While turning our compost pile I noticed a line of orange lights through the trees, just above our neighbor's house.

I first thought a firework had just exploded, but the embers did not dissipate, so I studied them more closely.

There were between 9-11 orange lights, bright enough to be very low flying aircraft, but they made no noise at all. 

They were flying very slowly northwards (much too slowly to be an small aircraft), evenly spaced, in an arced line except for the last four, which formed a small square.  It looked a bit like the Little Dipper, with less of an arc.

I called my husband outside and he saw the whole formation (assuming it wasn't larger before I noticed it) and, because it was moving out of view, we ran to our front yard where we saw our neighbors and told them to look up.

The lights began extinguishing one by one, and by the time our neighbors witnessed them, there were only three, but they were still bright and silent. 

Then, the last three lights went out, again, one by one, very gradually.

I saw that a local news station ran a story about folks seeing strange lights in the sky in the past few days, but no calls to the local Air Force Base or Federal Government have been returned.

Also, it seems odd that similar lights have been spotted across the country in the last month, in areas that do not have Air Force bases or, unlike us, are not near an international border.

Please feel free to email me if you have any further questions!

Additional Information:
The below follow-up was done by a fellow who is helping me out. It is greatly appreciated.

Hi,

Question: With pleasure, here is where this took place?
Answer: Grosse Pointe Park, MI, approx. 1/8 mile from Detroit River's opening onto Late St. Clair

Question: Can you estimate how high they were?
Answer: The clouds were low that night, and the lights were below them (obviously). I'd estimate they were about as high as the lowest permissible altitude for a small aircraft.

Question: What was the weather like that night?
Answer: Humid, cloudy, winds were E/3mph

Question:  Did you or anyone else you know get pictures for video?
Answer:  No, unfortunately. I drove up the lake afterwards to try to get some images, but it became very foggy and visibility was almost nil.

Question:  There was you and your husband and how many neighbors?
Answer:  Two, so four altogether.

I couldn't stand being baffled for long and have since concluded that the lights were most likely Chinese lanterns released in Windsor, Canada.

They were moving at approxamtly wind speed and direction, and could have easily drifted across the river in the time it took them to "extinguish"/rise above the cloud cover.

I am open to being convinced otherwise if this type of sighting has occurred in areas where the likelihood of Chinese lanterns being lit and set aloft to celebrate or commemorate an occasion is unlikely!

Thank you for following up and please keep me posted.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at: sighting@telus.net with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

Also, please feel free to send in your sightings that have happened years ago. So many of these older sightings are nothing short of amazing.

The Vike Factor (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal.blogspot.com/

The Vike Factor 2 (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal-2.blogspot.ca/