Although Common's professional career was in the field of sanitary engineering, he is most noted for the work he did as an amateur in the field of astronomy. As a child Andrew showed interest in astronomy. At age 10 his mother borrowed a telescope for him to use from a local doctor, Dr. Bates of Morpeth. He returned to astronomy in his 30s when he took up experimenting with gelatin plate photography of the moon and planets with a 5.5 inch refracting telescope.