Late sunday night 26th may this year i was out in my back garden. the night sky was clear with only a couple of street lights to interfere with my observation. i was looking up at the plough constellation which was high up and to the north west. my eyes caught sight of a group of stars one side of the plough constellation which seemed strangely regular in a pattern thus: * ** *, one then a space followed by two stars closer together, then the last star at the same distance from the two centre stars as the first. nothing particularly unusual about that you might think, just coincidence. however as i watched i realised that the group was moving, slowly and silently, and in a row, each behind the other. the direction being roughly north east. i watched until they disappeared behind the top of the house. now i've seen satellites in the night sky, they certainly travel in a very similar manner, but they always, to my knowledge, turn as they travel as they produce no light of their own so tend to wink out then appear bright again. and i've never seen multiple satellites in a row emitting a constant star like quality of light. i've observed aircraft in the night sky, both high up and silent and closer in and audible. both are pretty obviously aircraft from their intermittent lights - red green and white. am i observing a well-documented and explained phenomenon?