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Well i can give you an over view.
As being apart of a small group (quite funny actually to see them setup) that has a 12" SW solid tube, 10" SW solid tube (mine) and a 8" Solid tube all riding on the back of the faithful EQ6 steeds this is what it comes down to.
If your doing visual, the 12 will show more detail theres no 2 bob about it, its upto you to know how to look, an untrained eye will notice very little difference, a trianed eye will go wow!
You have to decide if it is going to be a imaging scope or a visual scope staight up and if so what imaging are you doing? you have mentioned about Lunar/planetary imaging in which case the 12 is the only way to go, the 10" isn't bad don't get me wrong ive taken a few cracker Saturn shots but the 12 just gets that much more detail.
Dont be fooled. a 12" can ride apon a eq6 as long as it is well maintained and well balanced.! my 10" imaging rig is approximately 26kgs which is well past the "stated load rating" my friends 12" is 20kg, with his 120mm clestron long tube refractor and black diamond 80 ED is up around the 30+ thats excluding the counterweight... and he always pulls nice crisp stars auto guiding at sub pixel values cleans that up nicely...(sure the mount wont last a lifetime but by the time your mount needs new gears and worms youll be upgrading anyhow and the gears and worms arnt expensive...)
So this is what i would think about the tube length of the 12" is approximately 1.5meters, 10" 1.3 meters, flex 1 meterish. Take into account that the dob base is HUGE. the 10" is half a meter wide and half a meter tall, the 12" is a damn site bigger.!
In the end aperature rules. get the biggest you can afford/manage that is fit for the job that you want it to do! (also if your crafty and know what your doing you can always fit a Flex dob on the back of an eq6... some carefully placed mounting blocks. hey presto!
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