Unfortunately Pingré suffered from poor health and eyesight, so his observing skills were limited, but he did earn a reputation as an excellent mathematician. He came to the attention of the scientific community when he detected an error of four minutes in Lacaille's computation of a 1749 lunar eclipse. After observing a transit of Mercury, he was made a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences. In 1757 he became interested in comets and published a substantial treatise on the theory and observational history of comets.