Meade AR-6: Coatings & Contrast

I recently picked up a Meade AR-6 OTA. As a long-time Newt/Cat fan, I thought I'd try out a refractor. This scope gives very sharp images of lunar detail and performs pretty well on deep-sky stuff. When observing the moon however, I notice that the background sky in the field of view, is pretty bright - as if light is being scattered in the telescope tube. This was true no matter which eyepieces I used. I also used my 25X100 binocs to look at the moon, just to compare the views. In the binocs, the sky around the moon is pitch black.

So is this typical performance on the AR-6? If so, would adding more internal baffles help the situation? I appreciate any advice on this! Thanks - Chuck