Did not need to use an eyepiece!

[Earl]

I was quiet amazed last night as I removed my eyepiece from my telescope which I had been looking at the moon with to be able to focus with my eyes on the moon been some distance from the eyepiece tube, I should of measured it but didnt.

when I say in focus humm, well I could see the sea' of the moons surface it was not crisp.

i was amazed to see that this was possible.

[Dad11223]

What a coincidence I tried it yesterday

Amazing!

[Hypernova]

Maybe your eye is acting as a telescope eyepiece, so that would make what you're seeing on your retina an afocal projection, like with a dslr chip connected to an eyepiece. That makes me wonder, what is the focal length of a human eye?

[jonstarrysky]

This is indeed possible. Another funky trick, put a sheet of tracing paper over the open focuser, and point at the moon. When it comes to focus you have accurately identified the position of the focal place of your telescope !

Stargazers Lounge - jonstarrysky's Album: XT10i intercept distance - Picture

I guess what you were doing visually is projecting the focal plane directly on your retina. Alternatively you can project it onto a CCD chip. Hey - maybe I can patent this idea and call it astro-photography.

[Capricorn]

The image formed by the scope simply becomes the object that your eyes look at.

Instead of you looking at the moon you are looking at the image of the moon formed by the objective. The image created will depend on the quality, diameter and focal length of the objective.

[NigelCampbell]

The distance from the cornea (where the light undergoes most of its refraction) to the central portion of the fovea on the retina is approximately 1.7 cm - so your eye is about 17mm focal length