QUESTION:
Does Mars have a "North Star"? Earth's axis points to Polaris. Has anybody
worked out what star Mars's axis points to?

ANSWER from Michael Malin and Charles Whetsel on August 9, 1997:
The star Deneb (alpha cygnii, M = 1.25) is the brightest star close to the
Martian north pole (within about 10 degrees or so).

(Reference 1971 Mars Scientific Model, JPL Document No. 606-1, 
Claude Michaux and Ray Newburn (authors), 
Section 1, Page 14 illustration attached)

Over the Martian year, throughout most of the northern hemisphere on Mars,
Deneb should be visible in the north just above the horizon, analogous to
the role that Polaris served on the earth.  (But what if the first
sea-faring civilization requiring a navigational refernce developed in the
southern hemisphere? <grin>)