TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 21576 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G298048: prior photometry from VISTA Hemisphere Survey DATE: 17/08/18 21:16:32 GMT FROM: Nial Tanvir at U of Leicester N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), A. J. Levan, D. Steeghs (U. Warwick) report: We note that the field of NGC 4993 was observed as part of the VISTA Hemisphere Survey on 9 April 2014. No source is visible at the location of the candidate counterpart (Coulter et al. LVC GCN 21529). We obtain a 3-sigma upper limit of J(AB)=21.6, significantly fainter than the provisional magnitude of J(AB)=17.5+/-0.1 reported for the infrared transient (Tanvir et al. LVC GCN 21544).