Sorry I just had to do this.

[ezdays]

Yeah - that's the fun in Astronomy... What you are looking at - is most likely gone and all you are "seeing" is the light feed that left there before it super-novaed or was swallowed by a black hole.

And they have seen some stars go nova... But then they always say something like this:
Well we just saw the star go Nova, but since it was 3000 light years away - it actually collapsed 3000 years ago....

Yeah, very confusing.. I always picture light from stars (and planets) like a LASER beam shot from a gun - a straight line

That light travels like a bullet in a straight line, so the light that left the star shot out and just arrived on earth, so we could "see" it.... Even though the star (gun) is gone, the light still travels......

Yup, that's my point. I have problems seeing things down at the end of the hallway.