What does the optical zoom in telescopes do? How does the optical zoom works..


*

*Does it brings the light closer to the object... Or

*Does it just enlarges the picture of the object.


In other words... Suppose I have telescope with 1 light-year zoom capacity, could I see stars 1 year ahead of its light reaching earth...
Ps : I'm not physics graduate, but interested in physics. I joined here, to learn more...  Please excuse me if my question is trivial or stupid.
 A: the magnification is a property of diverging light. it really needs a diagram, but the further away the detector is from the focal spot, the bigger the image will appear
this is the best picture I could find

the picture is a bit sloppy because it implies the focal spot is in the lens, which is not usually true, but it gives you the concept
try this yourself with a magnifying glass - the further you hold your eye from the glass (not moving the object) the bigger the object should appear
the same is true if you move the magnifying glass away from the object, but for a slightly more complex reason about how far the lens can bend the light
A: The answer is 2. Zoom isnt measured in distance, it is more like a ratio of magnification. So it tells you how much you magnified something, ofcourse for lenses the zoom is slightly more technical.
A lightyear is a distance, its actually the distance travelled by light in 1 year, so when you see stars 1 ly. away, you see how they appeared 1 year ago.
A: In the answer to you Question, light always travels directly, the zooming issue is comming from the lens, it means, the lens receives the light from the object and then based on the lens's physical nature it zooms the object, as per the model shown above. 
A: I think the question hints towards a basic misunderstanding that most have regarding light, and respectfully offered to many: the way that light and information is passed is highly glossed over. Any device that can "see" can only interact with incident light, light that falls onto or into the device (including our eyes). 
All possible information contained within the light can then be accessed, within the confines of the device. Kind of like a computer hard drive if you will. Depending on how you reach into that information will determine what information you read. Current discussion here relates to how the lease will change focal point, but that is one only one dimension to the information. 
The changing foci redirects the peering into the incident light's store of information, and that is what zoom is doing.
I realize this may sound a tad bizarre to some, but one day the world will better understand light.
