Well yes, you need to focus the telescope for that eyepiece (i.e., I doubt your eyepieces are parfocal). If you don't see anything but a whitish-gray glow, you are waaayyy out of focus. Try racking the focuser all the way in, put the 26mm in, and point in some random direction, any time of night. You will see stars in an 8" for any random field of view. Rack out the focuser until sharp star images appear. Meade wouldn't supply a starter eyepiece with a telescope if the scope couldn't reach focus with it.