UFO formation over Maryland or something else - 3/30/2020

[Mike]

Saw this posted on Facebook from a local meteorologist in Maryland tonight:

What was it that passed over Northern Maryland around 8:30 PM?
A few people shared this post with me and I wanted to ask you if you saw it.
Was it Elon Musk Starlink satellites?
Is the quarantine setting us up for an Alien invasion?

Please let us know if you saw it or have a better explanation. Thanks.

https://www.facebook.com/54875673475/photos/a.10150694050763476/10157967724243476

Some comments to the post:

Saw it in Carney/Parkville. Phone couldn’t capture. Counted 25 in a row perfectly spaced at 845 pm

I saw them tonight as well. And at one point they actually switched directions by maybe 20 degrees. It definitely wasn’t a sharp change but I watched from start to finish and was trying to make sense of all of it. (In reply to this comment: “curious. that will definitely rule out Starlink satellites!” and “changing direction would NOT be a satellite constellation”)

We saw it in Pasadena- about 50-60 all in a straight line evenly spaces, no flickering lights and too high to hear anything.

We saw it. (2nd picture posted with this comment)

(In reply to 2nd picture) - YESSS that’s the closest thing to what I saw!! Different vantage point but looks right to me!!

I saw them tonight, very high up, spaced far apart about 20 or so, about as bright as the other stars

Me and 2 coworkers saw it amd sent you a video. Was wild. IAmLegend. Lol

we saw this too! At least 30 flying over our house to the east. We saw it closer to 8:45!

Saw the same thing. Went on for several minutes. I thought they were satellites but there were so many...perfectly spaced apart.

I am sure we saw this but we saw them going in a straight line vs formations. It was also very dark outside.

My comment to this is that many people mentioned in the comments to the FB post (that I didn't include) that this is SpaceX starlink satellites (see below video) and from some of these other comments (I only included a few comments about the straight line people saw) that it seem like people did see a SpaceX starlink satellite line. Could be people saw two separate things and I’ve never heard or seen mentioned that people have seen formations of starlink satellites that change direction as described by the one comment.

There is also this comment: “Flock of birds in the fading sunset. Not unusual for birds to be mistaken for UFO's satellites, airplanes, whatever because they are brightly lit while the ground isn't.”

But this seems unlikely given people said that they were evenly spaced and seemed to fly and change direction in formation.

One thing I have thought of is it could be drones of some kind. Brings to mind all the unknown and unexplained drones people have been seeing over Colorado for some time.

 

[stellar]

But this seems unlikely given people said that they were evenly spaced and seemed to fly and change direction in formation.

One thing I have thought of is it could be drones of some kind. Brings to mind all the unknown and unexplained drones people have been seeing over Colorado for some time.

Saw something similar over Adelaide on 21st, 23d & 24th Feb. They were much higher in atmosphere, much faster and appeared to be shooting out of 'nothing' and then ending going into some 'nothing' point. My husband mentioned they looked like katusha type firing but WAY too high.
The fist & third sighting was in the NE skies, the second was in SW. Have no idea what they may be.

 

[Mike]

Other first hand accounts and other thoughts worth noting that were posted after my initial post:

I saw the change as well. I'm up near Camp David. Several of us saw it in Frederick County. They looked like they split off. We had 3 or 4 different directions all going at once.

Not sure about this set of comments:

Person #1 - I heard them all morning. Quite odd

Another person: you heard them? What did it sound like?

Person #1 - it sounded like helicopters but not close to the ground. Like many of them in the air, all at once. It was weird. I even asked my neighbor if she heard them and (name redacted) said she did. I thought I'd see them heading to work but didn't see a thing. I forgotten about it until now.

Person #1 - definitely aircraft I heard it this morning. A really odd sound. My neighbor and I couldn't figure it out. We're over the APG fly zone and it wasn't anything we've heard before. A cross between helicopters flying close to the ground and higher up. It was really different than what we've heard before.

Person #1 - I'm near Rocks State Park on Cherry Hill Rd and I thought it was helicopters spraying the fields close by. Just sounded like a lot of them..

Gettysburg PA, I literally just posted a siting on a private ufo group 20 minutes ago. Saw an orange ball of light brighter than a satellite and slower than an asteroid make a 30* turn and vanish. No joke. I ran into the house and scared the living hell out of my wife. Seruoisly though something is going on?

I saw it in Frederick!! Must have caught the tail end. Only saw about 15 or so before heading inside. Thought they were a weird constellation...then I noticed they were MOVING!!! I’ve never seen anything like it!! They looked to be heading SE from what I saw.

Now I'm creeped out. I was heading east on 140 out of Westminster, and there is one spot where you can see the tops of radio towers in Baltimore. I briefly noticed a line of bright lights and thought it odd that so many planes were waiting to land at BWI. The horizon changed and i turned my attention to the road. I realize now when i do see planes waitin to land, they are usually to the southwest.

We saw them over bel air around 9 ish. They looked like they were headed southeast - I was thinking Dover afb. Eerie to say the least..

My wife and i saw it also in Hanover, PA! We have a star gazing app. but nothing showed up, it normally shows satellites! HM makes me wondering whatda?

they are either Space X Starlink or One Web Internet. And they do maneuver in a constellation as they migrate to desired crossing and altitude. They are actively being tracked and do move in varied ways as each small satellites have varied movements due to variability or struggling movement.

Many posters pointing to this:

SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites into orbit, misses rocket landing

and this:

‘Like faint little stars': Just what are those lights you see in the night sky?

If you’ve recently seen a cluster of slow-moving lights in the night sky, you’re not alone.

www.fox19.com

 

[karo]

Hm, I just saw one star-like point on the sky moving along like normally satellites would do, after it there were 3 moving in form of triangle. Another witness saw coming one after one on the sky from above the building - what I mean this person was standing under the one building and opposite to them in distance about 10m is another 3-floor building so the view of the sky is limited. Here where I'am at we don't see horizont like in video above. I read this post in the morning and saw video as well. I only wonder why they are moving along the sky when they can be seen moving - those objects shine like the starts so it is easy to see them for someone who is outside in the evening, when someone is up to something why don't do it during the day when they cannot be seen?

 

[karo]

Many posters pointing to this:

SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites into orbit, misses rocket landing

and this:

‘Like faint little stars': Just what are those lights you see in the night sky?

If you’ve recently seen a cluster of slow-moving lights in the night sky, you’re not alone.

www.fox19.com

info from Starlink Wiki

2020–2021
As of 18 March 2020, SpaceX has launched 362 Starlink satellites. They plan to launch 60 more per Falcon 9 flight, with launches as often as every two weeks in 2020.

So maybe this is it really.