New (half) moon

I've been working on keeping my palm flat in trikonasana (triangle) and ardha chandrasana (half-moon). I like the palm down half-moon, and I don't need a block to do it. The harder thing for me to get used to is having the top hand flat next to my hip as Iyengar demonstrates (I have always done the pose with the top arm in the air and in line with the bottom arm). I find it more difficult to balance and to keep the front of my body open when I have the palm flat and the hand at my hip. I'm going to experiment for a while with only making one of these adjustments at a time.