an English astronomer from the early telescopic period, and a Member of Parliament. He was born in Cornwall, and after studying at Exeter College, Oxford, he married and settled in South-west Wales. In 1607 he observed Halley's comet and took a number of careful measurements which he communicated to Thomas Harriot, by which it was determined that the comet was following a curved course. Lower suggested that the comet's orbit obeyed Kepler's laws (instead of being an atmospheric phenomenon or following a rectilinear path, as was generally thought at the time)
