Red lights going toward a larger, stationery ,white light and then disappearing. I counted about 17 or so in 1982.

My husband and I, and three children, came home from a school play around 9:00 one evening, and were looking at the starry, country sky. My son and I stayed out and continued studying the sky after they went in. I happened to look at an almost 90 degree angle,toward the north, and caught sight of what seemed to be a very distant and small star. There was a red, pinpoint dot of light that came into view on the left side of the star [or object]. It disappeared as it got very close to the star. Another red light, exactly the same, appeared on the left side, and then another on the right,all doing the same thing, appearing, and then disappearing as if entering a loading or entry zone or something with a definite paced speed and format. I counted about 6 or 7, and called my 13 year old son over and showed him.  I counted about 10 or 11 more of these red dots of light entering from all sides of the star, and then disappearing. I've considered that it might have been  a meteor shower, but the activity seemed so uniform and there weren't any flashes or explosions that I could see. I don't know what the main object was either, but I felt that it was a lot closer than a star. I've never heard of anything like this.
Date is approximate.  PD