Dampner out of wack

Not too overthink or complicate things but I just checked it again but instead of having the screw ( on the TDC tool ) adjusted down as far as it would go into the cylkinder I instead had it almost all the way up and just barely down into the cylinder.

Now I get a reading of TDC just in between the original line that is on the dampner.

Red line indicates TDC with TDC tool down in the cylinder as far as it will go.

Yellow line indicates TDC tool just a tad into the cylinder

White mark is the original timing line on the dampener.

Can anyone explain this? User error. I do not think so, I was and am very careful with things.