Q: when somebody says something in outer space is x amount of lightyears away does that only describe its distance from us or does it mean the thing is so far away that we're seeing the past by the time the light is reflected back??
A: both. lightyears is a distance. it's the distance that light would travel in that many years. the moon is just a few lightseconds away. that means it takes light a few seconds to get here from the moon