The above finder chart shows the locations of the brightest fragments of comet 73P on the night of April 15, 2006. My first target was Fragment B, which was easily picked up in the big Obsession, even though the comet was at just 20° elevation and the sky was not yet fully dark. My drawing presents a 199X view in the 18-inch Dobsonian. The bright nuclear region appears elongated. It's about 1' in length along a northeast by southwest axis. The brightest portion of the tail extends west and south of the elongated core, reaching beyond the field boundary. The east and south tail section is visible though more delicate. A narrow tail extends 3' to the southwest along the same axis as the core. This tail tapers to a point at its southern limit. The four bright stars northeast of the comet range from mid-10th to 12th magnitude, the brightest being the 10.7 magnitude sparkler 6'.5 due north. The other seven stars in my drawing are 13th and 14th magnitude embers.

After observing comet 73P's B fragment, I slewed 45' to the west-northwest to check out Fragment G. This is clearly the faintest of the three fragments. At 199X, Fragment G appears as a diffuse circular patch of fog. At times with averted vision, I suspected an elongation within the 1'.5 coma. This fragment shares the field with 7.3 magnitude HD 131453, that star residing 7'.5 to the east. Another 26 stars are scattered throughout the field of view. Many are quite faint--13th to 15th magnitude--although two of the four stars gathered just inside the southwest edge are in the 11th and 12th magnitude category.

Finally, I turned the Obsession to Fragment C. This fragment seemed a tad brighter and more detailed than B, at least to my eye. My sketch renders a 109X view in the 18-inch. Fragment C displays a stellar central condensation or pseudonucleus. An 11th magnitude GSC star is seen , about 1' to the southwest of the nuclear region. The coma is nicely rounded and an elongated tail sweeps southeast over a distance of 22' to the edge of the field and beyond. As with Fragment B, the brightest portion of this tail is that running west and south from the core. The tail to the east and south is more gauzy in appearance. Twenty-one stars dot the field. The bright one near the western field boundary is 9.1 magnitude HD 135163.