Even if you were in one of the voids between galaxies, you’d still see far away stars with the naked eye.
Given that when they exit the void in the show there’s a gradient to the stars coming back into view kinda like exiting thick fog, maybe it was a nebula of unidentifiable material. So unidentifable, the ship didn’t even know there was something to identify.
The spaces between the arms toward the edge of the galaxy can have huge spaces of nothing in them.
…that we can see across. With the naked eye.
Hell, you can see Andromeda from here with the naked eye. The episode is written like they’re crossing the Bootes void.
Even if you were in one of the voids between galaxies, you’d still see far away stars with the naked eye.
Given that when they exit the void in the show there’s a gradient to the stars coming back into view kinda like exiting thick fog, maybe it was a nebula of unidentifiable material. So unidentifable, the ship didn’t even know there was something to identify.
It’s kinda like Voyager had some lazy writing