> So we are seeing the quantum energy from the atom, not the atom itself. <
I hate to sound like you-know-who, but I guess it all depends on your definition of “see”.
Okay, let me get very technical, then.
The electrons within the atom were excited to the next highest energy state through the input of energy. Almost immediately, they jumped back down to their base energy state, giving up the excess energy as a photon packet. That photon packet zipped out and hit some sort of photographic capture medium a few centimeters away. (I do not know what kind of photographic capture medium was used, so will skip a few steps here.) Once a sufficient number of photon packets were captured in this way, an image was made by typical methods--in this case, the image is little tiny pixels shining in various colors (okay, I have no idea how a flat screen functions). The colored photon packets from the flat screen fly across about 40 centimeters (for me, anyway) and enter the eyes, where they interact with pigments in cells of the retina. This causes the optic nerve to send information to the brain, which we then interpret as vision.
There, happy now?