3D print the Large Binocular Telescope
A free, printable model of the Large Binocular Telescope, with the green hillside and the road looping around it, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About the Large Binocular Telescope
Mount Graham, at 10,700 feet (3,300 m) in southeastern Arizona's Pinaleno Mountains, in the United States, is home to the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), an optical telescope for astronomy. It belongs to the Mount Graham International Observatory. Its name reflects the design, in which a pair of 8.4 m (330 inch) mirrors sits on one shared base.
When both mirrors are used, with their centers 14.4 m apart, the LBT gathers as much light as a single circular telescope 11.8 m (464 inch) wide and has the resolution of one 22.8 m (897 inch) wide. Taken one at a time, its mirrors tie for second place among optical telescopes in continental North America, beside the Hobby–Eberly Telescope, which is in West Texas. Its mirror is also described as the biggest single-piece (non-segmented) mirror of any optical telescope.
Dedication took place in October 2004, and the telescope saw first light with one primary mirror on October 12, 2005. The second primary mirror was put in place in January 2006, and first light with both mirrors together came on January 11–12, 2008. It is a joint project whose members include the University of Arizona, the Italian astronomical community and several German research institutes. It cost around 100 million euro, a group of Italian firms designed the telescope, and Ansaldo assembled it at its plant in Milan.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 11 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 14 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 18 mm | 1:2,344 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Thin rails and louvers
- Thin rails run across the open front, and the side walls carry fine louver lines. Print friendly adapts thin parts to the print scale, while a larger print size or Full detail keeps them.
- Round base, boxy enclosure
- The round base and the box above it have small surface details. A layer height of 0.12 to 0.16 mm keeps the edges and louver lines crisp.
- One piece with the ground
- The Large Binocular Telescope is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Large Binocular Telescope takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
The Large Binocular Telescope is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Large Binocular Telescope STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. The Large Binocular Telescope grows with the print: about 11 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
