Dartmouth Night Sky Appeared to Be Under Attack From Space

I hear some things. Sometimes I don't. It may be my hearing loss or my inability to remain focused. Perhaps I am just forgetful. My wife will swear she tells me about things, but I don't always recall.

Teachers always told my parents, "He has a good head, but it's always somewhere else."

The other night, while trying to absorb the New England Patriots' loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, I stepped out onto the back deck for a breath of fresh air and a glimpse of the night sky.

I love to watch the sky, especially at night.

I have a wide sky view from my perch in Dartmouth, close to the Westport line. The night sky in "the country" is dark, which makes for a better view.

About an hour after sunset, I shut the sliding door behind me and began tracking the blinking lights of at least five jet planes making their way across the night sky, all at different altitudes and moving in different directions.

Where were they all going? Who was on board?

How I wished I was on one.

Suddenly, a trail of bluish-colored lights emerged from behind a thin cloud. The lights moved west to east in an arc formation before disappearing behind another patch of cloud cover.

The lights were in sync and appeared to be moving with purpose. I had just enough time to summon my wife from her office computer before what was certainly an alien invasion force disappeared from view.

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My wife informed me that the galaxy was secure, at least for now, and that what I had witnessed was nothing more than the SpaceX Starlink satellites, an internet service launched by Elon Musk, forming a train across the night sky.

Has anyone seen this? My colleague Tim Weisberg has mentioned it in an article about UFO sightings but it never registered with me.

My wife swore she told me about this and that we had actually seen this once before while driving home from dinner late one night. Perhaps she did, and I don't remember. Or maybe I watched in awe and wished I was on one.

I love to watch the sky, especially at night.