I was standing on the beach at approximately 8:15pm looking up at the clear night sky trying to identify some constellations and thinking i might see a meteor or two. i had been looking up for several minutes on and off, giving my neck a rest, when i saw a group of 3 lights coming from the west. at first i thought they might be forming a triangle but i noticed each one was changing position slightly as they moved across the sky (passing directly overhead) in approx 3-4 seconds. i want to say that they were cross shaped and flickering slightly, the best i can describe. if they made any sound i did not hear any. i thought to myself, 'did i just see that?, wow, what was that?' then i started to think of possible explanations. definitely not chinese lanterns. possibly some type of projected images/lights? didn't seem like it, don't know. also there is an air national guard base very close by. maybe some other intelligence? i then wondered if there might be more and i thought about my phone's camera and about a minute later i saw another group coming from , the best i can recall, roughly the same direction so i a bit nervously fumbled with my phone and couldn't open the camera fast enuf and just watched as they moved across the sky. they were the same kind of lights and there were about 5 of them this time. i felt a bit nervous and kind of excited at what i was seeing. i realized that the camera on my phone would likely not have picked any good images or video anyway. then a minute or so later i saw another group of the same lights , about 5-6 this time moving from the south over the lake to north across the sky in approx 3-4 seconds. they seemed to "disappear" or fade from sight when they were almost all the way across the sky to the north. in all 3 sightings the lights seemed be moving as a group and moving slightly within the group. best i can remember, one of the groups might have changed direction, but only slightly. this was a first ever experience like this for me. would really love to know what these were.