TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  21697
SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G296853: VLT observations by GLGW Hunters
DATE:    17/08/25 15:34:40 GMT
FROM:    Graham P Smith at U of Birmingham  <gps@star.sr.bham.ac.uk>

M. Jauzac (Durham), G. P. Smith (Birmingham), J. Richard (Lyon), M. 
Bianconi (Birmingham), C. P. L. Berry (Birmingham), W. M. Farr 
(Birmingham), R. Massey (Durham), A. Robertson (Durham), K. Sharon 
(Michigan), A. Vecchio (Birmingham), J. Veitch (Glasgow)

The Gravitationally-lensed Gravitational Wave Hunters collaboration 
report observations of strong-lensing galaxy clusters located within the 
sky localisation of the LIGO/Virgo trigger G296853 (LVC GCN Circ. 21413).

Following Smith et al. (arXiv:1707.03412) we searched the skymap for 
strong-lensing galaxy clusters that lie within the 90% credible sky 
localisation.  Abell 2895 was the closest strong-lensing galaxy cluster 
to the peak probability in the skymap.  We observed this cluster with 
MUSE on VLT on the nights of August 9, 14, and 16.  MUSE spans a 1x1 
arcminute field of view with a wavelength range of 4650-9300 Angstroms.

Analysis of these data is ongoing.  Colleagues with complementary data 
are welcome to contact us with a view to collaboration.

We thank the staff at ESO for their outstanding support of our observing 
programmes.