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Hi Mark, I myself have a Skywatcher 12" GOTO dobsonian and I have to say that while it is nice to have a motorized mount they are quite a bit heavier and then you have the added cost of the power supply.
If you use a manual 10" dob and a star chart/software you can see some pretty amazing stuff and you will learn the night sky better than if you go straight to a motorized mount.
However if you wish to take photos, a motorized mount is the way to go.
Myself I don't think it would be cost effective to convert a manual dob type scope to a motorized one, if you buy at the right time you can get a GOTO dob for a decent price, (eg. I got mine for $2600 including the power supply and eye-piece/filter set.)
My personal choice for photo taking is the Celestron NexImage ccd camera that fits into the eye-piece and plugs into a laptop. You can use it with or without a motorized mount and it has some nice software so you can play with the image. They are also quite cheap for what they can do.
A red light is a must, it can take an hour for your eyes to become fully night adapted and just a little bit of white light can ruin that.
Something to keep warm with and something to keep the bugs away will make things much more enjoyable.
At the end of the day... er night, it is whatever works for you is the most important thing.
Good seeing
Scott.
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