UFOs Invade The Hudson Valley: Did You See The Strange Lights?

MAMARONECK, NY — There was plenty of excitement on the screen as "Superpets" played for Family Movie Night at Harbor Island Park, but about a third of the way into the movie, something would turn everyone's eyes from the outdoor screen to the sky.

As Super Dog wrestled with the sudden arrival of new villains with alien superpowers, a murmur rose through the audience as a real world phenomenon demanded the moviegoers' attention.

A string of lights rose from the west climbing overhead, as families on picnic blankets reached for cellphone cameras and children turned backwards in their camping chairs and pointed at the string of brilliant pearls steadily approaching the zenith.

But, just as the strange lights moved directly overhead, they suddenly vanished from sight without so much as a flash. The excitement took a bit longer to disappear, but eventually, the audience returned its attention to (SPOILER ALERT) Super Dog overcoming both Lex Luther and jealousy over Superman's relationship with Lois Lane.

The nice thing about seeing the astounding sight while surrounded by a crowd is that between Google and "phone a friend," those at the seaside movie night had answers sooner than most.

According to reporting from Patch's Eric Kiefer, readers across New Jersey were also treated to the eerie light show on Saturday evening. These sightings inspired conjecture about drones and conspiracy theories about alien visitors, but it seems the real story behind the display of lights is slightly less sci-fi in nature.

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According to the Space X website, 22 of its Starlink satellites were launched into low-Earth orbit from its complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:38 p.m. on Friday. The satellites are designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to users across the world.

Starlink satellites were reported to be in the area last weekend on findstarlink.com, a website that tracks the Space X devices.

"I don't know what we saw, but I know I've never seen anything like that in my life," a Montclair, New Jersey resident wrote about the unusual sighting on Saturday.

He told Patch that he and his friend now believe what they saw were the Starlink satellites. But at the time — staring up at the weird phenomenon — it wasn’t hard to "entertain the idea that they could have been extraterrestrial in nature."

The Hudson Valley and New Jersey weren't alone in seeing the lights in the night sky.

When an X user posted a video of "strange lights" in the sky, others commented that they saw the same thing in Piscataway and Bergen County. Another person said they saw them over Washington County in New York.

This story includes reporting from Patch's Eric Kiefer.