In 1927 he began working at the Broken Hill Associated Smelters in Port Pirie, South Australia, becoming the assistant supervisor of research, and he remained there until 1929.
Beginning in 1940, near the start of World War II, he worked as a physicist in the Chemical Defence Section at the Munitions Supply Laboratories in Maribyrnong.
He now began astronomical studies using photoelectric photometry and produced a series of papers on eclipsing variables, globular clusters in the galaxy, and the magellanic clouds.
Later he selected Siding Spring Mountain as the site of a 150-inch (3,800 mm) telescope, located further from the encroaching growth near the older observatory.
Hogg served in other positions of note, including as president of the Royal Society of Canberra in 1954; chairman of the Australian Institute of Physics, Australian Capital Territory branch, 1964; and the Commission 6 on Astronomical Telegrams of the International Astronomical Union from 1961 until 1964.