Re: Unknown 95058B and viewing accessories?

Geoff Chester (Geoff.Chester@NASM.SI.EDU)
Fri, 07 Mar 97 08:50:15 EST 

>I'm a rank amateur at satellite tracking, so please forgive the following 
>questions.  I observed NSSC #23705 Unknown 95058B last night.
     
     This is Cosmos 2322 Rk, a Russian "Zenit" rocket body which 
     orbited Cosmos 2322, a "Tselina" electronic intelligence 
     satellite.  It is typical of this class of booster in that 
     it is tumbling.  When I first saw it in late 1995 it had a 
     period of less than half a second...torquing by the earth's 
     magnetic field has slowed its tumble rate to the roughly 8.7 
     seconds we're seeing now.  There are over a dozen "Zenits" 
     up there now, some tumbling and some not.  Cosmos 2333 Rk is 
     one of the most recent and still has a rapid flash period. 
     They are among my favorite satellites to watch!
     
+==================================================================+
| Geoff Chester    geoff.chester@nasm.si.edu      gcheste@ibm.net  |
| Albert Einstein Planetarium          National Air & Space Museum |
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| "Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand |
|   miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules--and still    |
|    there are some misfits who insist that there is no such       |
|                         thing as progress"                       |
|                                            --Ransom K. Fern      |
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|           http://www.nasm.edu/GALLERIES/gal201.html              |
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     Geoff