We had gathered for the evening at my neighbor's house, sitting outside in the front lawn. There were six adults and two children in our group.I noticed a bright light approaching from the northeast. I was sitting in such a way that i was facing west, looking over the roof top of my neighbor's house. My neighbor's daughter had noticed that my eyes were fixed on the sky, so she too looked up and observed the light. By this time all eyes were now on the light which was flying close and over my neighbor's house. We initially thought it was a plane, however,the light was bright, white, and steady; no secondary, pulsating, or blinking lights observed. No sound of any kind was heard as it traveled in a steady straight path. We were all asking each other what it was we were looking at,since we could not discern a pulsating or secondary light, as on a commercial plane, because we live close to an airport (Hobby Airport) and also to a former military base that now is used by the U.S. coastguard, NASA,private companies, and now has reserve military facilities. It is called Ellington Field, formerly Ellington Air Force Base. As soon as it cleared the big tree in front of my house(next door from where we were sitting), the light suddenly diminished to black and instantly, two dim lights appeared to shoot out of the center, in opposite directions. One light traveled north, in a straight path,at a constant speed and elevation. This light held steady in its illumination. It actually looked like a satellite traveling across the sky. I'm an avid star gazer, since childhood and still own my telescope that I've had for about 36 years, so thru my star gazing, i have seen a few, what I think at least, are satellites, in my life time. I witnessed the light traveling north, but then i lost it in the glare of the street light down the block. We have a street light in front of my house, but the large tree in front of my house blocks a good portion of it, as many branches smother it. Eventually, with the aid of my neighbors, they told me where to look again so that i could see the light. By this time the light was traveling back in the direction it came from (from the split)and was eventually lost. Since i focused on the "left" light,i did not see where the "right" light went to.