Question

Earth acts like a giant version of what device, with angular momentum along its axis and pointing at polaris, the north star?

Answer 1

gyroscope

Earth itself acts like a gigantic gyroscope. Its angular momentum is along its axis and points at Polaris, the North Star. But Earth is slowly precessing  once in about 26,000 years  due to the torque of the Sun and the Moon on its nonspherical shape.