Just like "smoking" has several accepted meanings as well as (at least) one informal usage. A person can be familiar with all of them and still rightly object to an art journal describing the Mona Lisa as "smoking." I can see how a non-native speaker might think the broader meaning of "eclipse" a casual derivation of its astronomical one, rather than the basic meaning from which the latter is derived. It is less a sign of ignorance, per se, than of inexperience.