I stepped out on our deck to look at the nearly full moon rising at about 9:45 PM on a nearly cloudless night and noticed a stationary bright white light (like a brighter than normal Venus) to the east at about 60 degrees. After about 5 seconds the light faded to a star-like point of light and began moving south at around the speed of a near-earth satellite and I dismissed what I'd seen as a tumbling satellite reflecting sunlight except the initial bright light seemed stationary. Alternatively, it could have been a plane changing direction but no flashing running lights were apparent. However, after the light had traveled about 1 inches at arms length it appeared to suddenly divide into two faint points that went in nearly opposite directions (north and south) at very high rates of speed. Since the star-like lights were small and moon lite the sky the lights quickly disappeared from view.