I was on my balcony watching for satellites traversing the night sky. The night was clear with excellent visibility and approx 2 octas of cloud at about 5000ft. I noticed lights ( approx 25 - 30) approaching my position from the Southwest. The lights were in a loose line astern formation heading Northeast. Although the lights were above the cloud by a considerable amount , They were visible to me for about 30 seconds. At no time did they deviate from there track of Northeast and appeared to be travelling at the same velocity. I have submitted a report to MUFON and have been advised to send a copy to yourselves.