Well, @PdotdQ, you definitely win the “above and beyond the call of duty” award. I appreciate you putting in all of that effort to educate me (and hopefully some other folks in the forum). Clearly my descriptions were incomplete–which was always likely, given the nature of the project, but it’s helpful to have more details on exactly what is missing. At the video chat on Saturday, I will be sure to encourage folks to check out this thread so they can benefit from your work as well.
It would be interesting to play around with the different components to see under what conditions the Sun/Earth relationship flips. In particular, I wonder how big of an angular area the Sun would have to occupy to reverse things. Maybe it will tell us something about why the Sun is the same apparent size as the moon. (I am very skeptical that it actually would and am content for the Sun/Moon size ratio to be a coincidence, but it would be interesting if there were more of an explanation.)