TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  18789
SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: LBT follow-up imaging of iPTF15fhq
DATE:    15/12/31 20:04:21 GMT
FROM:    Peter Garnavich at Notre Dame  <pgarnavi@nd.edu>

P. Garnavich (Notre Dame) reports:

R. Pogge (OSU), J. Turner (UVa), and B. Rothberg (LBTO) obtained LBT/MODS
imaging of iPTF15fhq (Cenko et al., GCN 18762), at 06:23:25.937
+57:11:51.19 (J2000).
Images were taken in the r-band filter with the MODS instrument in
acquisition mode
on 2015 Dec. 31.25 (UT) in 1.0 arcsec seeing (FWHM).

A pair of interacting galaxies (VII Zw 70) is seen with the transient
expected near the northern galaxy. No transient with a stellar PSF is
detected
in the LBT image to a magnitude limit of approximately r=21 mag.
Further imaging is needed to decide if the galaxy core could be the source
of
the variability.

Note that a spectrum of this candidate (possibly centered on the
galaxy core) was obtained with the Liverpool Telescope (Steele &
Copperwheat,
GCN 18782) on 2015 Dec 30.9 (UT).