When viewing distant stars and galaxies, how do we decide the actual 'position' of that body versus where it appears? For example, the light from a star on its way to our eye, passes close to two or a dozen other massive bodies, bending a little with each passing and therefore changing perceived position of the light's origin. In fact some of the light starts out pointed away from our line of sight, but during its journey is bent just enough to finally end up in our telescope. Could there not be several different 'beams' of light from the same star which when they finally get to us, appear to have originated from several different stars, based on their incoming trajectories? And if this is possible, how do we 'count the stars' or galaxies accurately if two or more apparent bodies are in fact from just one origin?