I must admit that I came to this adaptation by Amazon with very low expectations... Peter Jackson's The Hobbit low, in fact. Thankfully, thus far it isn't THAT bad. Visually, it is stunning. Galadriel is well-acted, as is Elrond. Gil-galad is a little stiff, but hopefully he will find his stride in later episodes. The Harfoots (Harfeet?) are delightful. The Stranger is probably Gandalf. He is all "backwards"; his powers seeming to be destructive rather than constructive, like a mirror image of himself - Gandalf reflected in water (again, a mirror image), which hearkens back to Galadriel and Fingon's conversation in Valinor.
Now for the bad: It is painfully clear where they had to fill in the gaps for First Age material that Amazon doesn't have the rights for, and some of the choices were very, very bad. The revisionist history of the Noldor's flight from Valinor is painful beyond words, as is ignoring their eventual redemption after the defeat of Morgoth. Changing Galadriel's reason for not returning to the West (and somehow making Gil-galad the decider of who gets a golden boat ticket ala Willy Wonka) is also really cringe-worthy.
(meme by @TheHiggybaby)
But perhaps the most teeth-grating canon error of them all is the statement that both Elf-human marriages "ended in tragedy. It ended in death." I will give you Beren and Luthien, but Tuor and Idril? Nope. Not by a long shot. They escape the fall of Gondolin with their child, Earendil, who becomes the Evening Star and the sign of Hope for all of Middle-earth. Tuor and Idril sail into the West together and it is said that Tuor "alone of mortal Men was numbered among the elder race, and was joined with the Noldor, whom he loved" (The Silmarillion 245). No death here!
So, we have the good and the bad. What about the astronomy? Lots to mull over here.
First, we have Sadoc the wise Harfoot. Not only does he have a relatively scientific viewpoint of everything that is happening (in contrast with the two female Harfoots - Harfeet - who respond more emotionally - yay gender stereotypes!), but he has the Big Book of Accumulated Harfoot Wisdom (TM). This almanac appears to contain information about the natural environment, especially seasonal changes and other patterns in nature which would be very helpful to nomads such as these.
There appear to be symbols related to the sun and moon AND at least two recognizable constellations, Cygnus the Swan and most of Scorpius the Scorpion. This would make sense, as these are prominent constellations seen in the summer, and the notations follow one after the other.
Cygnus
Scorpius (body and tail)
There may be more actual astronomy hidden in here, but that suffices for now.
Sadoc studies the sky one night alongside his book, and notes “First
the big people, now the stars. Eyes open when they should be sleeping.... Almost like, like they’re watching for something.”
We see a path curving relative to some stars in the book. The three in a row sort of look like Orion's belt from a weird angle, but if you look carefully there is a fourth star that the line itself passes through so I don't think that's what this is meant to be. Perhaps it is the ecliptic, perhaps something else. But it is clearly astronomical in nature. But there is a HOWLER of a boo boo in this scene: the moon.
Not only is the moon WAY too large in the sky (please no one try to justify that they are taking into account the secular acceleration of the moon and tidal effects....) but the "dark" side is facing towards the sun rather than away, and the phase when seen this close to the sun would be a crescent not a gibbous, so it is just WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Sadoc is right when he says "The skies are strange", but not for the reason he intends.
Then we have the meteor...
Not going to nitpick except to say that it was seen over WAY TOO LONG a distance and the path doesn't make sense if you look at the fact that it was seen first by Gil-galad in Lindon, then Arondir in the Southlands and then by the Harfoots (Harfeet?) in Rhovanion.
Episode 2 starts with an astronomical reference as well, as SoggyGaladriel (TM) orients herself by looking at the Big Dipper and swims East.
Unfortunately the shape of the Big Dipper is a little funky (bowl too large/handle too small) and the North Star/Little Dipper are missing, as is Cassiopeia. Now I can forgive the North star being absent because Tolkien doesn't reference it. Cassiopeia is Wilwarin in The Silmarillion, but no one owns the rights to Cassiopeia, and it is a bright constellation, so why omit it?
Finally we have the Stranger trying to make a constellation out of fireflies. Does he complete it before he collapses? We don't know.
It's not ringing a bell with me at the moment. But what Nori says next certainly sets off alarm bells...
"I’ve
never seen those stars before. But I have a pretty good idea where I can find
them."
She is clearly speaking about Sadoc's Big Book of Accumulated Harfoot Wisdom (TM). That's all well and good, but why wouldn't SHE have seen them? After all, Arda is FLAT at this point in the Second Age, so all of the stars would be visible from the entire world (different stars seen at different latitudes only works on a curved planet). Oh the boo boos I expect to see in future episodes.....
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