I found this.
Occasionally here at Answers in Genesis we get inquiries about a telescope called LUCIFER that the Vatican supposedly owns. Is there any truth to this rumor?
answersingenesis.org
While this cute moniker wasn’t official, others have been. An example is a very complex, useful instrument designed for the LBT. At its inception, the system was called
Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Spectroscopic
Utility with
Camera and
Integral
Field Unit for
Extragalactic
Research (LUCIFER). The full title was descriptive of what the instrument was to do, but it was a mouthful. And notice that they had to play games with the acronym to get it to spell out anything memorable. I’m sure that the astronomers who came up with this one were amused.
However, the amusement didn’t last long, for as word of it spread, many critics of the Roman Catholic
Church made the connection with the LUCIFER instrument for the LBT sharing a mountain with the VATT, which very quickly (but incorrectly) morphed into the Vatican owning a telescope called LUCIFER. The firestorm that ensued probably was responsible for renaming the instrument LUCI in 2012, six years before LUCI was completed and went into service (such a complex instrument can require years of planning and development). Note that LUCI is not a telescope but rather is an instrument that attaches to a telescope. Also notice that the LUCI instrument attaches only to the LBT, not the VATT. They may be at the same observatory (MGIO), but they are separate telescopes, owners/collaborators and systems.
Despite the rechristening of LUCIFER as LUCI and the fact that LUCIFER never was the name of a telescope, let alone a telescope owned by the Vatican, this false rumor keeps making the rounds.
Official website
LBC Red - LBC Blue The Large Binocular Cameras (LBC) are two wide-field cameras mounted on the prime focus swing arms of LBT. LBC Blue is blue-optimized for observations from approximately 3500 to...
www.lbto.org
View attachment 48719