Jason 325 - Poor View Quality

I've had a Jason 325 refracting telescope since I was a kid (it's about 25-30 years old). I broke it out of storage recently to get some good views of Mars. The quality of the view was awful - I could not see any detail whatsoever (I just saw a very large white sphere through the eye piece). Aside from focusing, is there any thing that I can do to the instrument to get a better image or is this just a poor quality telescope?

Thanks in advance,
Chuck

Can you determine whether the poor image quality you saw is due to the objective? or the eyepieces? Which eyepiece or eyepieces did you use?

My own early-60s Jason 307 (60mm f/13.3) is quite good, and I have no trouble seeing Martian details (ice cap and larger dark areas) and its unmistakable salmon-orange hue.

In early July, I wrote a 3-part report about viewing Mars with my Jason. You can find it by using Astromart's "Search Forums" tool (top of the screen). Search the "Solar System Observing" forum for "challenge revisited." That should bring up all three segments (plus two related replies).

Best wishes.
-Dan