Looking at the faxed image with your naked eye (for the experiment we in reality use a high resolution lattice image from an electron microscope), it is clear that even magnfied several hundred thousand times the rows of atoms are too small and faint for a quantitative measurement by eye. You look around and find a meter stick, a piece of wire mesh, a lens from an old magnifying glass, and a small He-Ne LASER with a diffusing lens on its output.
Recalling vaguely exercises on diffraction physics, atom-resolution microscopy, and stardust on earth from your days in high-school, at UM-StL, and in StarFleet Academy...
