Saw something over Manchester city centre last night and I can't stop thinking about it

I'm not one for posting these things, but I genuinely can't explain what I saw and it's doing my head in. This was about 11:15 PM last night (Tuesday, December 10th) and the sky was completely clear - cold, crisp night, good visibility.

I was walking from Piccadilly towards the city centre when I noticed three lights in a triangular formation above the Arndale Centre. My first thought was obviously planes or helicopters, right? But these didn't move like aircraft. They stayed absolutely still for maybe thirty seconds, then moved - not smoothly, but in these deliberate little shifts, like someone adjusting their position.

The weird part: they didn't make any sound. I stood there for probably two minutes watching them, and it was completely silent. Then a couple of actual planes flew past in the distance (you could hear them miles away), and the three lights just vanished. Not gradually, just gone.

My mate thinks I imagined it. My mum thinks it was a Chinese lantern (lol). But I've lived in Manchester for thirty-two years and I've never seen anything like it. Wondering if anyone else in the Greater Manchester area noticed anything?

Did you get any photos? I know you were probably too shocked, but future reference - always try to get something on your mobile. That said, your description matches several common aerial phenomena. The triangular formation is classic, the silence could just mean they were further away than they appeared, and the disappearance when other aircraft showed up is interesting but could have multiple explanations.

Chinese lantern is rubbish, by the way. Your mate doesn't know what he's talking about.

This sounds like the kind of thing that happens a lot over cities and nobody talks about it. The fact you didn't film it is exactly why these reports never get taken seriously - not your fault, just how it works. Thermal inversion could explain the visibility over the city. The triangular formation could be satellites moving in formation (SpaceX Starlink trains sometimes look weird). The silence is the only thing that doesn't have an obvious explanation, but again, distance and wind direction matter.

Not saying it wasn't a UFO, just saying there's a lot of prosaic explanations too.

This happens over Manchester fairly regularly actually. I've got three reports in my local paranormal database from the last two years, including one from someone in Stockport who saw almost exactly what you're describing. The council won't acknowledge it, the news stations ignore it, so people don't report it. But it's definitely happening.

Have you contacted NUFORC (National UFO Reporting Center)? They catalogue this stuff properly and you might find similar sightings from your area.

Planes don't vanish when other planes fly past them. That bit is actually weird. But honestly, mate, the problem with UFO sightings over cities is that there's SO MUCH happening in the sky all the time - drones, helicopters, military aircraft, satellites, reflected light, weather balloons, who knows what else. It's basically impossible to distinguish between ". Aircraft I don't recognise". And ". Actual extraterrestrial craft." Your experience was real, obviously, but explaining it requires more data than you can gather standing in Piccadilly in the dark.