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The small cap's actual purpose is to reduce the aperture[and internal heat build up] when doing solar observing with a solar filter fitted to the eyepiece.
This practice is now a no-no due to the risk of eye damage should the
filter shatter. Unfortunately, these filters are still available on ebay.
There is no point in just removing the small cap when viewing the moon
because this reduces the aperture to about 50mm which in turn reduces the image's brightness. The scope's resolution is reduced by more than 50%, which is the last thing you want when looking at all the interesting features
on its surface. Incidentally, if you want to view the sun you can attach
some Mylar sheet to the aperture exposed when the small cap is removed.
raymo
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