What I wonder is how someone can say a star
is 6000 light years away when what they are looking at is the light supposedly emitted 6000 years ago.
How do we tell the distance to anything when it is not there in the first place?
Anyone got and good links (for a beginner) on the principles of how distances to stars and galaxies are measured. I have always been intrigued by the vastness of space and the distances said to be involved. About time I found out about it.