TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 21681 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G298048: MUSE Integral Field Observations DATE: 17/08/24 19:28:30 GMT FROM: Andrew Levan at GOTO A.J. Levan, J.D. Lyman, D.T.H. Steeghs (U. Warwick), N.R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), J. Hjorth (Dark Cosmology Centre) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We observed the candidate counterpart and host galaxy (NGC 4993) of LIGO/Virgo G298048 (LSC GCN 21509) with the ESO VLT and the MUSE Integral Field Unit, starting at 2018 August 18.99. MUSE has a 1’ field of view, and a spectral range from 4650-9300A. Both the host galaxy and transient are clearly visible. The bulk spectrum of the transient is comparable to others reported at the same epoch (Lyman et al. GCN 21582, Nicholl et al. GCN 21585, D’Elia et al. GCN 21592). The galaxy is dominated by a spheroidal component, but weak spiral arms can be seen in emission lines extending both north and south from the centre of the galaxy. They do not reach the location of the transient, and no underlying star formation in the form of emission lines is evident in the vicinity of the transient source. Further analysis is ongoing. We thank the staff at Paranal for their excellent assistance in performing the observations."