[2] After leaving Cambridge he went through a course of astronomy and surveying, and put his knowledge to practical use in two journeys, made in 1881, into unfrequented parts of Iceland, where he took regular observations of latitude and longitude and dip of the magnetic needle (cf.
There, with his principal instrument, an equatorially mounted Merz telescope of 6.4 inches, he observed, in days preceding the transit, double stars and star-clusters, paying special attention to the nebula round η Argus, one of the wonders of the Southern sky, which he described in a memoir.
Peek made extensive travels in Australia and New Zealand, bringing back with him many curious objects to add to his father's collection at Rousdon, Devon.
[1] In 1884 he established, on his father's estate at Rousdon, a meteorological station of the second order, and in the same year he set up there an astronomical observatory to contain the 6.4 inch Merz telescope and a transit instrument with other accessories.
With the aid of his assistant Charles Grover, he began a systematic observation of the variation of brightness of long-period variable stars, by Argelander's method, and on a plan consistent with that of the Harvard College Observatory.