0.1 miles away
Submillimeter Telescope
A 10-metre submillimetre radio telescope on Mount Graham, completed in 1993 and part of the Mount Graham International Observatory.
Large Binocular Telescope
An optical telescope on Mount Graham whose paired 8.4-metre mirrors give it the light-gathering power of an 11.8-metre instrument.
- Rank in Arizona
- #52of 727 ranked
- Overall score
- Score 55.3 out of 100medium confidence
- Category
- Observatory
The Large Binocular Telescope is an optical telescope for astronomy on the 10,700-foot Mount Graham, in the Pinaleño Mountains of south-eastern Arizona, and forms part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. Using both of its 8.4-metre mirrors, whose centres are 14.4 metres apart, it has the light-gathering ability of a single circular telescope 11.8 metres wide and the resolution of one 22.8 metres wide. Its mirrors are individually the joint second-largest of any optical telescope in continental North America, after the Hobby–Eberly Telescope in West Texas, and it has the largest monolithic, or non-segmented, mirror in an optical telescope. Strehl ratios of 60 to 90 per cent in the infrared H band and 95 per cent in the infrared M band have been achieved.
Where it is
Large Binocular Telescope is a observatory near Safford, in Graham County. It is one of the observatories in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.
How this ranking was reached
No official visitor count is published for Large Binocular Telescope, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.
Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.
Mentioned in
- Arizona protects its night sky in one set of places and uses it in another — Eight Arizona attractions hold International Dark Sky Park status and all eight publish visitor counts; twelve working observatories publish none.
Sources
- Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
- Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
- County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
- Official site: http://www.lbto.org(opens in a new tab)
Record last verified 2026-08-12.
More photographs
No machine-readable author provided. GreatInca assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab) 
No machine-readable author provided. GreatInca assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Nearby attractions
1.0 miles away
Pinaleño Mountains
A Madrean sky island range near Safford with over 7,000 feet of relief, rising to Mount Graham at 10,720 feet.
1.0 miles away
Mount Graham
A 10,720-foot peak north-east of Tucson, the highest in the Pinaleño Mountains and the southernmost land above 10,000 feet in the country.11 miles away
Dankworth Pond State Park
A subunit of Roper Lake State Park near Safford with fishing and birdwatching, and a recreated Paleo-Indian village on an interpretive trail.
11 miles away
Roper Lake State Park
An Arizona state park around a 32-acre lake five miles south of Safford, below the Pinaleño Mountains.
12 miles away
Mount Graham International Observatory
A University of Arizona observatory in the Pinaleño Mountains, site of the Large Binocular Telescope and contested since construction began in 1989.
Facts and sources
Place
- Category
- Observatory
- Destination
- Safford
- County
- Graham County
- State
- Arizona
Visitation
- Annual visits
- Not published
Ranking
- Overall score
- 55.3 / 100
- Visitation score
- No published count
- Popularity score
- 59.3
- Significance score
- 52.0
- Confidence
- medium
Visiting
- Official website
- lbto.org(opens in a new tab)
- Coordinates
- 32.7013, -109.8891
- Last verified
- 2026-08-12