Yeah, polarisation makes a huge difference depending on where you are looking on the sky. Similarly, filtering.
I had a bash at imaging Polaris with an 80mm f/7 refractor a few years back using an H-alpha filter to filter it into the red. Unfortunately, the images kept on saturating as sunrise approached – but I was using a CCD whose shortest exposure was about 0.08sec.
With a modern CMOS sensor I imagine I could do a lot better now.