Thanks yet again Max, Eric Suzy & Norm for your input.
I really appreciate all your advice & welcome all perspectives to help me fully form mine! As a first scope (& I'm thinking a long-term keeper), I'm certainly leaning more & more towards the 10" collabsible Skywatcher Dob. Max: I'd suspected much of what you've offered in relation to the NexStar 4SE. I really want to "do" it myself & I'm now much more reassured about the near space performance of the Dob format, not to mention attracted to the "light bucket" aperture! I'm sure at some point I'll seek out a nice (read pricey) refractor & associated mount for astro-photography...but not just yet.
One thing I'm a bit uncertain about though: does the 8" Dob have a "usefully" shorter focal length than the 10" & therefore potentially offer the benefit of a larger field of view for a beginner seeking the gratification of an expansive "reveal" when seeking out large galaxies etc.? Or can the field of view issue (if it is one) be compensated for with appropriate eyepiece selection? Probably totally wrong about this???
Happy to hear more!
Cheers,
Lee