I think I see what is happening. Chineson is indeed making an argument based on some correct intuition, but the inferred effect on the orbit is not what would happen, as is also being pointed out by johntsang. Chineson, you were initially correct that the effect you are looking for is indeed the coriolis effect, and your basic argument about how it works is right, what is wrong is the way you assume it will affect the orbit (and this you are simply assuming, as you have done no calculation to substantiate it, as Nereid points out). But the answer to this is already known, the coriolis deflection does indeed have a simple effect-- it causes the Moon's orbital plane in the co-orbiting frame of your picture to go around a circle in one year, where the axis of this little rotation points upward. If you go back to the star's frame looking in, that little circle is just what you need to keep the Moon's orbital plane to stay just the same relative to the stars as the Earth orbits the Sun. Try to think of going back and forth between these frames, and you will see what really happens. In fact you have just made a fairly easy mistake to make, and seen ramifications to it that excited you. You are doing science, you just made an error. It happens to us all 95% of the time we try to discover something new, but it's all worth it for that 5%! So I applaud your effort, and your willingness to debate it here, but I want to liberate you from this misconception.