Thanks ‘Flarkey’,
So it seems these sightings are the Starlink satellites. We are seeing them well over the Eastern horizon, perhaps over 1000nm ahead of us. The large number of satellites, their concentration around 53N and mixed in with some some polar orbits are then being illuminated in a fairly small area of the sky by the winter sun. Causing an illusion that they are manoeuvring around each other.
Normally, in the winter we don’t see satellites so far from sunrise. It just so happens that these satellites are particularly reflective when low in the sky and just happen to be visually seen from so far away, long before dawn.
I guess we’ll get used to seeing them all time from now on.
And being well over the horizon from the surface, you won’t observe them from the ground. Only Airline pilots will be reporting them.
Last edited by birdspeed; 21st Nov 2022 at 18:01.