Eclipse Edge Expeditions is a subsidiary of Meta Research, Inc., a non-profit astronomy research organization based in Washington, DC. The scientific coordinator is astronomer Tom Van Flandern, author of Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets, a book about the origins of bodies in the Universe that also contains one chapter about eclipse viewing (North Atlantic Books, 1993; 2nd edition 1999). Van Flandern was a research astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Nautical Almanac Office for over 20 years, where he became the chief of the Celestial Mechanics Branch that is responsible for computing local circumstances for eclipses. The eclipse expedition branch of Meta Research exists for the purpose of mounting expeditions of professional and amateur astronomers and other interested persons to near the edges of the path of totality for total solar eclipses. Meta Research’s number is 360/504-1169. Recorded information about Eclipse Edge Expeditions may be obtained from its toll-free number, 800/898-3343 (3343 = “edge”)
Eclipse Edge Expeditions had successful solar eclipse expeditions to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1991, Santiago, Chile in 1994, the Galapagos Islands in 1998, and Istanbul, Turkey in 1999. It also organized a partially successful expedition to observe the Leonid meteor storm of 1999 from the island of Cyprus.