On November 21, 2025, at approximately 17h:11m UTC, I observed a satellite from the south of the Netherlands that, to the naked eye, appeared noticeably elongated compared to the point-shaped stars. With 7x50 binoculars, I saw two satellites flying close together in tandem. The separation was such that I think they can just be separated with the naked eye if you look closely. The direction was south to north indicating a polar orbit. Based on angular velocity, the altitude was roughly estimated between 300 and 500 km. A few minutes later, I saw another similar pair, and the next morning, while I was outside observing a comet, I saw another similar pair - this time through the tracking scope while I was preparing my equipment. They were definitely not Starlink satellites because I would have recognized them immediately by their characteristic blue color and orbit.This must be something from recent launches using a new concept. I've never seen this before in 15 years of active satellite observation. I have seen tandem satellites and the familiar Starlink trains, but this is something else. They appear to be newly launched satellites that still need to separate. In any case, they appear to be two identical payloads of equal brightness; for example, it doesn't look like a satellite is inspecting another. Any idea which launches we're dealing with here? If I know that, I can predict the transits for future times and try to get the objects into the telescope that way. Perhaps I can do that in a single frame, which would be great. Thanks in advance,Ralf https://satellite-imaging.jouwweb.nl/selected-project-samples-best-works
It's not entirely simple, but arguably one of the best way to identify unknown satellites is via doppler shift analysis with a tool like strf.https://github.com/cbassa/strf
