>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 | +==================================================================+ | "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 | +==================================================================+ | http://www.nasm.edu/GALLERIES/gal201.html | +==================================================================+ Geoff