The Atmoscope: Using a Planet's Atmosphere as a Telescope

The Atmoscope is the idea to use the atmosphere of a planet as a telescopic lens. It uses the refractive properties of an atmosphere to converge light rays to a focal line. It has been hypothesized that using Earth’s atmosphere could, under favorable circumstances, yield an amplification of 55; 000 for a detector that has a surface area of 1m2....