Relating the phases of the moon to one side of the moon being lit by the sun and the other side being in the dark sometimes appears a bit unintuitive. One thing that books and “the internet” always recommend is holding up a sphere in the direction of the moon and pointing out how the same side of the sphere and the moon are lit.

I’ve tried this before using apples or other fruit that I had on me when I happened to see the moon in the sky, but it is not really satisfying. Fruit in the sun always look like fruit in the sun, plus it is really hard to photograph (or can you spot the moon above the nectarine in the picture below?).

See the tiny moon right above the nectarine and how its light and dark sides are the same as those of the nectarine?

So I was really happy when I managed to take the pictures below:

In both pictures: Model of the moon between my fingers on the left, and moon in the background on the right. See how the lit and dark sides of both spheres are in the same position?

This is the first time I felt like it actually worked for me.