Originally Posted By: paul
...each light wave would be 546,000 miles apart from its closest neighbor.

I highly doubt that a single light wave would enter any telescope

The simple truth is that photons are received, without deference to your doubts. Your 'closest neighbour' distance is arbitrary, but taking your numbers as an example, 546000 miles is a mere 3 seconds of photon travel. Have you considered that exposure times can run in weeks? Have you considered that photomultipliers are used?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photomultiplier
These detectors multiply the current produced by incident light by as much as 100 million times (i.e., 160 dB), in multiple dynode stages, enabling (for example) individual photons to be detected when the incident flux of light is very low.

"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once" - John Wheeler