 As well as being a meteorologist, he was also an astronomer, publishing "An Account of the Discoveries concerning Comets, with the Way to find their Orbits, and some Improvements in constructing and calculating their Places" in 1757.He "provided a handy table for determining parabolic trajectories and orbits".He was the first modern astronomer to note the discrepancy between some ancient accounts of Sirius being a red star and its current blue-white colour.