Lights were showing up to our N and slowly fading as they moved toward the SE

We watched the white lights show up bright in the same part of the sky to our N, and fade out in the same pattern while moving toward the SE. Some lights would show up higher or lower in the sky in conjunction to our horizon, but all showed up in the same direction of our view and faded out in the same direction. I tried to video them with my phone, but for some reason they didn't show up. We watched a pretty steady flow of them for over an hour. They were showing up at the rate of one to four visible at a time with no more than a minute between seeing any. They all had the same pattern to them. They would show up at first really bright, over double the size of any star, and fade slowly as they moved off toward the SE. The way that they all showed up the same and faded out the same we started thinking that maybe they were either coming into or leaving from our capability to observe them.