Lost the horizon for forty seconds

Pulled out my old pre-GPS exercise last night: fixing position from a single star and a wristwatch, the way we did it. Cold air, pencil marks, the small satisfaction of the LOP crossing where I estimated it would. The horizon defogged itself for a beat and I remembered why instruments were always a backup, not the faith. Half a century later and I still trust a 2-degree error over a clean display.