Building my 10” scope gave me a chance to define, refine and rework the ideas I learnt while building my first 12” and my 16” telescopes. These ideas were incorporated in this 12” telescope. They include a smaller and lighter weight secondary cage, a longer mirror box that moves the balance point closer to the secondary cage and smaller diameter, lighter weight truss tubes. All contribute to an imbalance in favor of the bottom end but when heavy Naglers  and a 80mm finder scope are added, the scope is in perfect balance. In addition, when I place a digital camera on the focuser, I add two speaker magnets to the steel frame of the floating mirror cell to balance the extra weight of the camera.

Foucault testing of 12-inch mirror showed the mirror to have a maximum wave front error of 1/11.6 wave at zone 3. The images are stunning and the detail in Saturn and Jupiter are the best I have ever seen at 300X. This is a very fine telescope that will satisfy my desire for great images.