while on a family vacation with 5 adults sitting on the balcony of a north carolina coastal condominium, my son and husband both saw a red circular light appear, disappear, and reappear in the south- eastern sky about 45 degrees above the ocean’s approximate horizon around 9 pm on 7/10/2018. this happened over a 5-10 minute period before i saw it the third time. we first thought it was a flare over the ocean. however, it lingered for a time and didn’t appear to be a projectile,like a flare. it disappeared then reappeared again with 2 circular horizontal lights a short distance apart. they disappeared for maybe 10 minutes, then reappeared to the left in a more north-easterly direction, but it was a semicircle with an arc shape underneath. after several minutes it appeared as a full circle with another one beside it. finally, the two circles became vertical instead of horizontal. these changing lights were visible for about 15 minutes before they disappeared. the lights were visible for a total of approximately 45 minutes.