I just seem to have a knack for memorizing star fields,' he told me, with a frankly apologetic look, when I visited him and his wife, Elaine, in their picture-book bungalow on a tranquil edge of the village of Hazelbrook, out where Sydney finally ends and the boundless Australian bush begins. 'I'm not particularly good at other things,' he added. 'I don't remember names well.' 'Or where he's put things,' called Elaine from the kitchen.