Location: Long Island NY, 44.8265N 72.9570W (~60 miles East of NYC)
Date: Early 70's, in the Summer.
Time: Night, after sunset but before midnight.
Weather: Moonless night, cloudless sky
I would have been in my early teens.
I was sitting with my mother and grandmother on our back patio enjoying the Summer night. We were just quietly talking and looking at the stars. The house was directly behind me and blocked any view to the West. I think we all noticed it at the same time...
There was an oval shaped void behind which no stars could be seen. It had no visible outline of its own, but the oval shape was easily determined by the area you couldn't see behind it. Within the void were small, randomly placed but evenly distributed green lights. The lights did not blink. They were dimmer than most of the surrounding stars and numbered in the dozens with my best guess being 80-100 or so.
The oval appeared to be extremely high and huge. The size was roughly 3-4 moon diameters wide by 5-6 moon diameters long. This was determined by the thumb on out-stretched arm method. Movement was West to East. I would almost guess it was moving due East.
The speed of the oval is hard to determine. It was within our view for 3-4 minutes if I recall correctly, but it may have been shorter. It may have moved at approximately the same speed (I later learned) that a satellite arcs across the sky.
It was silent.
The three of us that witnessed it all agreed on the description of what we saw.
So...
What did we see?