1- Time had its origin in the big bang.
2- The large telescopes allow us to observe now how the stars were in the past.
3- The past of the stars is real, that's what Astronomy is based on.
4- The sunlight takes 8 minutes to reach Earth.
5- The light of the Alpha Centauri star takes 4.2 years to reach Earth.
6- For Albert Einstein, we do not perceive things, but the light they reflect.