hi George,
I don't think the difference would be significant enough to justify the $450.
I believe both are mass produced.
If you are prepared to pay a bit more, I'd suggest you look at investing for added convenience, collapsible Dobs that make it easy to transport and handle than a solid tube. Its more for portability and ease of storage but goes a long way.
http://www.myastroshop.com.au/produc...sp?id=MAS-041G
I know you mentioned you don't need to travel much with it, but my point is that from the $850 solid tube, the only reason to spend more on the 12inch would be for the truss convenience (compactness when travelling) or the collapsible tube convenience (again compactness) or even goto capability with a motorized Dob.
But comparing two solid tubes with the same dia mirror but $450 apart, the saxon one doesn't make practical sense to me.
so if you're happy with handling a solid tube, the GSO is very good value for money.
I remember viewing eta C through a 12inch SDM at Snake valley.
I've never seen anything like what I saw through the EP. it had a 3D depth to it, was crystal clear and so much detail.
I thought it must've been a hand figured mirror because SDM build premium scopes with custom mirrors.
But what I didn't pay attention was that the Eyepiece was a premium one, don't know which, but was amazing and the mirror, to my surprise was a GSO one.
I'm no expert, but I believe hand figured mirrors offer better views but how much better, all depends on what one's after and how much you can discern.
Things like dark skies, eyepieces, mirror cooling make a lot more difference.
Point I'm trying to make is that to spend $450 more on the same aperture, the reason has to be better than what's advertised in terms of magnitude and resolving power, especially if both are mass produced.
Cheers
Alistair