finder won't form an image

[BrendanG]

I recently inherited a telescope, so I tried to use it.  I thought I'd try using the finders first, but I can't see squat.  I don't mean that I can't find anything.  I mean that I can point it at a light source (like the moon), and I will see light, but what I see looks nothing like the source of the light.  It is as if I were looking at defects on the lens, or as if there were a paper film covering the finder, and all I saw was the texture of the paper.  

 

I tried looking at things around the house with the finders and eye pieces separately, and I can see images with them.  I just have to hold them far from my face, and the images look small.  But as soon as I put the eye piece and finder together (that's what I've read that I'm supposed to do), I get images like what I posted below.  That makes me think maybe these pieces don't actually go together?  Like I said, I inherited these pieces, so it's possible that they got all jumbled up and aren't meant to be put together.  Or maybe I'm doing something really dumb.

 

I took the pictures by looking at the moon with the finder-eyepiece combination, and holding my phone up to the eyepiece.

Picture 1

Picture 2

[Carastro]

It will be out of focus. Ficussing a finder is not always obvious.  What scope and finder do you have ie presume the finder is the one tgat belongs to the scope. 
 

Carole

[Moonlit]

On 9/3/2022 at 5:14 AM, BrendanG said:

  I mean that I can point it at a light source (like the moon), and I will see light, but what I see looks nothing like the source of the light. 

 

 

First the obvious - make sure that the finder scope has a clear line of sight to the sky and isn't obstructed by another part of your set-up.

Could you post a picture of the finder scope you used to take those pictures?