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Hi Philip and welcome to IIS.
Before answering your question (Meade v Celestron), maybe tell us what your intentions are.
If you are purely into visual, then both are just as good as each other, just have to choose between blue or orange.
What's your budget? Remember you will need to get some eyepieces as well and costs can add up.
SCT's have long focal ratios, f10. So they will be good for planets and clusters, but won't show much detail with nebula and galaxies. Dobsonians are good choices on the "bang for your bucks" scale and will leave some room in the wallet for some decent eyepieces.
If you want to do astrophotography, then you will need to get an equatorial mount as the fork mount will be insufficent for tracking (but fine for visual). You can then get a simple refractor like an ED80 or a fast ratio newtonian like a 8" f5.
The other thing I highly recommend is go to a star party or astronomy camp, the one at Snake Valley organised by Malcolm (Barx) is a great place. You get a chance to see the pros and cons of various scope and pick the brains of experienced amateurs.
Bo
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