a grouping of white lights surrounded by haze, floodlight shining down, no sound

On a beautiful, clear spring evening, I went for a walk from my residence in Los Altos, Ca., over to Sunnyvale. At that time, when I lived in California, I was hiking between 25 and 35 miles each week, both after work and in the evenings. I was returning home from my walk, and was within one mile from my house, and cut across a supermarket parking lot. The supermarket had closed for the evening, the lights were being turned out, and there were only a few cars left in the lot. As I crossed the lot, I looked up at approximately a 30 degree angle, and noticed a tight grouping of 5 or 6 white lights with a "floodlight" shining down. There was a mist or haze surrounding the grouping of lights, which were in a non-descript pattern on this object.My first observation of this object would indicate that it was a helicopter with a searchlight shining down. I quickly realized, however, that the object was at a close proximity; approximately one third to one half a mile away, and there was no sound audible from the object. The object was completely motionless. I realized that a helicopter hovering at that close proximity would be distinctly audible.As I watched the object, a person was walking to their car across the parking lot. I was just about to call out to that person to call their attention to the object, when