If the planets are lightyears away wouldn't it take some time for the telescope to gather/see the light from the planet? On the side note I dont know if this is a dumb question I'm really curious.
Answers (1)
We don't, and it does. Light from the furthest galaxies has taken billions of years since it left the point of origin till it was finally observed. When directing the mars rover, nasa has to wait ~14m for commands to be received, and similar time to receive visual feedback signals for the action - this was pointed out on the martian movie during the camera scene, if you've seen it.
Further reading: Gravitational lensing (einstein cross is neat).
Postscript: You've got the terminology confused. Telescopes observe stars (eg the sun, celestial objects which emit light) & galaxies from such distances. Planets like earth, satellites like the moon don't emit light through fusion or anything (save for reflection), so observation of such distant ones uses a technique of seeking periodic flickering - every time the planet happens to block out the light from a known star which it orbits.