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Hi Twiggy and welcome to IIS.
I had an 8SE on the single fork mount. It was great for visuals and very portable. Good goto and set up is a 5 min job. I also managed to do some webcam planetary stuff, but that I am afraid is the limit of the mount.
AFAIK, Celestron does not make a wedge for the 8SE as it is simple too heavy for its fork mount.
So grab a Dob if you are into visuals only, 8SE if you want good goto and some planetary webcam work. But if you want any form of DSO work, then you will need a good EQ Mount (HEQ5 and EQ6 as suggested).
If you have a budget of $2000, you can get a brand new EQ6 mount with a second hand ED80, which is good for visual and provides a great platform for AP work later.
I have and ED80, and the views from the ED80 is comparable with the C8 OTA. That's because the faster ratio (f7.5 compared with f10 of C8) gives you a slightly brighter image and the ED glass gives good colour correction over mirrors.
HTH.
Bo
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