You can’t see as far as a lightyear IF all that distance was filled by an atmosphere.
Our atmosphere is only 100km tall, everything between that and the stars is empty space. Starlight passes through the void without being scattered, diffracted, or absorbed by an atmosphere, and our atmosphere isn’t thick enough to completely obscure it.
You can see as far as light can travel to get to your eyes.
You can’t see as far as a lightyear IF all that distance was filled by an atmosphere.
Our atmosphere is only 100km tall, everything between that and the stars is empty space. Starlight passes through the void without being scattered, diffracted, or absorbed by an atmosphere, and our atmosphere isn’t thick enough to completely obscure it.
You can see as far as light can travel to get to your eyes.