I had to laugh at this, so hard. My uncle is an astrophysicist as well, among other things, and it's probably one of the last things he ever tells anyone he "does". Most of us in the family mention it when it's become apparent he is quite "head in the clouds" about much, and giggle while mentioning that for a rocket scientist, he often doesn't have the good sense to get out of the rain haha

I could never imagine him mentioning it on his own, even if asked, and expecting people to be wowed by it. I believe if asked, he usually tells people his a former professor who went into business with his wife creating computer software in the late 80s. Now, what they've worked on with that IS impressive, but you'd be hard pressed to get him to talk about it unless you asked--and he would still likely brush it off as "nothing"