Anecdote of an astronomer looking for correlations in antipodal pairings of stars; what am I remembering?
This is a partial answer because while I'm quite sure that 


Fang Lizhi is the astronomer I'm thinking of
The paper Periodicity of Redshift Distribution in a T-3 Universe (FERMILAB-Pub-90/26-A
January 1990) is a description of the research I'm remembering


I can not understand the paper well enough to connect it to how I remember the author describing his computational experience working on the small Apple computer while trapped in an embassy, and what this paper has (if anything) to do with comparing antipodal points.

Hopefully this is enough information for someone to go further and post a proper answer.

There is also the book The Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the State by the same person. On Page 294:


  What I needed was a computer. Again I was fortunate, because one of the diplomats, who originally had been a student of mathematics, was being transferred back home and was ready to part with his first generation Apple computer.