NUFORC Sighting 178702

Occurred: 2023-10-03 02:50 Local
Reported: 2023-10-06 05:14 Pacific
Duration: 30 min
No of observers: 2

Location: Boston, MA, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Airline pilot - Lights high in sky ahead and above coming in and out

Airline Capt for major US carrier. 25 yrs airline, 28 years USAF (they overlap). Flying to Europe from NY, 50ish miles before Boston at 35000' heading 060 deg I notice a light ahead and above come into view, grow very bright, looked to move right and down then dim till gone. Then another one, or the same one, appears, grows bright, and dims as it moves away. I noticed this for several minutes before pointing it out to my first officer (highly experienced and also ex-military). Lights were not consistent - sometimes one followed by another then another, sometimes 2 or 3 at once, sometimes movement from left to right was pronounced. This went on for approx 20 min. I have several videos (taken with phone).

NOT starlink, not other satellites, not a planet, not space station, not ships at sea - we both know what all of those look like and we both agreed that this was not any of those. Only possibility is military aircraft. Problem with that is 1) lights were very bright and came on dim to bright to dim which aircraft lighting is set (just on bright); 2) white lights NOT green/red navigation lights or strobes; 3) the light looked very similar to how airliners look as we come in to land - with our gear down, landing lights and nose gear lights on. No aircraft has their landing gear out at 35000' plus; 4) We both felt that the objects were 10000 or more above us. VERY high for even military activity.

For videos - 1) you will see venus (?) in lower right corner. Bright. Not what I am talking about. 2) The perspective from the videos makes them look lower than us, but we both watched them and were sure these objects were above us and by a lot. Not sure why it appears that way.

-City in video is Boston
-Bright light on right edge is a planet
-No moon, no clouds (video quality makes it appear there is low clouds - no)
-Very few stars out except if you looked very high and to the north
-Objects in question are in middle/middle high of videos

Posted 2023-10-28