8 or 9 total bright orange balls rise from behind tenement and ascend into sky. 2 or 3 leading, climbing and heading southward in a vertical line. Followed by 2 more on horizontal axis, forming a triangle at the bottom of the vertical line. These eventually disappeared into a cloud. Shortly afterwards, 4 or 5 followed the initial formation, individually, in a fairly straight vertical line. A Cessna sized plane crossed the sky from west to east, as another light appeared, rising, from behind the city tenement. It crossed in front of the bottom of the cloud that the orange spheres were entering. The difference between the airplane and the spheres was significant. The airplane made a great deal of sound. The balls were silent. We frequently see commercial aircraft pass near our apartment, and unlike those many distant aircraft, we were unable to notice any distinguishing structural features of the orange balls. We observed the final ball travel through the cloud, and we saw that it must have ascended to a great height, as I was able to watch it grow very distant and faint. When the first sphere was sighted, I was alone, smoking a cigarette on my fire escape. Once the spheres flying in formation had almost reached the clouds, I went indoors to quickly wake my girlfriend so that she could witness the event as well. She did not observe the spheres flying in formation, but she saw that spheres that followed behind them, and also was present while the aircraft passed close to them.