We've all heard that looking through a telescope is like looking
forward in time because we can see the light from the stars a lot
sooner than with our naked eyes.  If a supernova occurs, say, 10 light
years away from us, that means it is as far away as the distance that
light travels in 10 years, and thus, it will be 10 years before the
light from it reaches the Earth.  But if we happen to look in that
direction through a telescope, we may see the event before the light
from it reaches us. In that way, it is said, the telescope has managed
to bring to our eyes today an event which we would not see otherwise
until sometime later on.  It is said then that the scope has brought
the light of the event closer to us sooner than we would have been
otherwise able to see it, so in effect, we have traveled into the
future.  If so, it follows that every time we look a telescope we
travel into the future, if only temporarily.  To return from the
future, we have only to look away from the scope, and we're back!  So
who says time travel ain't possible?

I have no question about that, because it seems to me we have not
traveled anywhere, we're still here in the present time, and we never
left.  It is the scope that has brought the future to us by showing us
an event before the light from it has reached the Earth.  My question
to this learned group has to do with the apparent riddle of FTL travel
which the scope attains in bringing the future to us.

Yes, I know that it's done with lenses that focus the light coming
through them and it magnifies the light to the X power of the lens
combination.  But how can it bring light which has not reached us yet
into focus so that it can be seen before it gets here?

Say that the supernova above occurred 10 lys ago but it is twice as far
as that from us.  The light from it has been rushing toward us for 10
years but it will take 10 more years for it to reach us.  With our
trusty scopes, though, we can see that light right now.  While we are
looking at something that happened 20 years ago, we are seeing it 10
years after it happened, but 10 years before the light can get here.
In this case, we are looking into the future and seeing the past!

Nevertheless, the question remains:  How is it possible for a telescope
to show us the future simply by magnification and focus?  We know the
mechanics of it, but how can we reconcile that with the fact that no
information can travel faster than the speed of light?