"It was a dark evening with only the feeble light of a waning crescent moon." How much basic astronomy is widely understood by those not specifically interested in the subject?

In My Humble Opinion
161

It could be an alternate timeline where Jefferson Davis’s plans got expanded for some reason.

162

I guess I can’t understand people who know a lot about astronomy being shocked that a lot of people don’t know that much. As for the kangaroo, I’d wager if you’d ask most people what continent kangaroos are native to, they could answer correctly. Kangaroos are cuter than asteroids.

163

I was gonna say that that was a rather poor supposition not really analogous to the one at hand. I mean, yeah, I’m sure there’s some people who might not notice it, but I’d wager the number who would are a few of orders of magnitude more than notice an error of where a waning crescent moon is supposed to be in the sky. Come on.

164

To identify the error in the first post:

  1. You would need some knowledge of astronomy, specifically how times of moonrise and moonset change with phases, and how they do so.

  2. Wish to apply that knowledge to a brief passage in a book, written probably for atmosphere and not of much relevance.

  3. Be on social media to properly complain about it.

I think the average person would score few points on the first two. Astronomy was arguably more relevant to Average Dude when one could reliably see the sky, and when there were fewer distractions.

165

Asteroids smell better. Besides, space is where everything is.

166

‘Waxing’ is a word that does get used occasionally, especially when someone is ‘waxing wroth’. Otherwise the Marx Brothers joke wouldn’t work.

I have only noticed H. P. Lovecraft use ‘gibbous’ in a non-lunar context. Since the word can mean ‘swollen’ I now think he may have been using it correctly, to describe misshapen alien entities.

167

The line works because Groucho delivered it. It may have been a more common expression 100 years ago, but I’ve read lots of classic literature and watched lots of old movies, and to the best of my (increasingly unreliable) recollection, the only time I’ve ever heard it was in Horse Feathers.

168

“Waxing poetic” is probably the modern usage most common after “waxing moon”. I don’t think I ever even heard the word gibbous until I took an Astronomy class in college.