Welcome to Ring of Fire Expeditions
“We will find our place under the sun”–from a Hungarian poem
Ring of Fire Expeditions (ROFE) is the longest consecutive astronomical tour organization in the United States. ROFE specializes in astro-tourism since 1970 with expeditions organized and led by Paul D. Maley of the NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society and arranged by Future Travel in Houston, Texas USA. These include tours to observe such events as Halley’s Comet, the Leonid meteor shower, transit of Venus, spacecraft reentries, solar eclipses, grazing occultations, and occultations of stars by minor planets.
The number of eclipse tours listed that we have completed are for separate solar eclipses, not just individual programs. We are a public outreach effort of the NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society led by amateur astronomers and welcome all persons who are interested in astronomy and the natural sciences. You do not need to have a science background or any prior experience to join us!
Solar eclipse expeditions of the NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society in Houston, Texas began in 1970 when Paul D. Maley and J. Wesley Simpson traveled to the total solar eclipse in Valdosta, Georgia. Paul continued organizing expeditions off and on during the 1970s whose purpose expanded in 1983 to including science goals of what is now the International Occultation Timing Association. In 1990 the name RING OF FIRE EXPEDITIONS was adopted. Expeditions have now included such diverse scientific phenomena as earth satellite reentries, occultations of stars by asteroids, Halley’s Comet, eclipses of the moon and more.
While most RING OF FIRE total solar eclipse expeditions travel to the center line to obtain maximum totality, we sometimes have a small secondary expedition to observe near the edge of the path of totality. We also observe annular eclipses and will observe either from the edge where Baily’s Beads phenomena are wonderfully prevelant, or the center line. We strive to keep the group sizes reasonable; sometimes the overall demand exceeds our expectations. For our larger expeditions we conduct a site survey (when possible) in order to obtain the best possible observing locations, with tour group safety as our primary concern. Future Travel (formerly Hanssen Future Travel) has handled all expeditions since 1977.
KEEP YOUR EYES FOCUSED ON FUTURE ADVENTURES WITH “RING OF FIRE EXPEDITIONS”
Please join us on another eclipse tour by monitoring this web site. The following eclipses are on our event horizon.
| Type | Date | Region of Visibility |
| Annular/Total | 3-Nov-2013 | Africa |
| Annular | 29-Apr-2014 | Antarctica |
| Total | 20-Mar-2015 | Svaalbard |
| Total | 9-Mar-2016 | Indonesia/Pacific |
| Annular/Total | 1-Sep-2016 | Africa |
| Annular | 26-Feb-2017 | S.America/Africa |
| Total | 21-Aug-2017 | USA |
| Total | 2-Jul-2019 | S. America/S.Pacific |
| Annular/Total | 26-Dec-2019 | India/S.E.Asia |
| Annular | 21-Jun-2020 | Africa/Mideast/Asia |
| Total | 14-Dec-2020 | S.America |
| Annular | 10-Jun-2021 | Canada/Greenland |
| Total | 4-Dec-2021 | Antarctica |
| Annular/Total | 20-Apr-2023 | S.E.Asia |
| Annular | 14-Oct-2023 | N.America/S.America |
| Total | 8-Apr-2024 | USA/Mexico |
We just arbitrarily stopped here, but we are planning beyond 2024!
