A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness.

Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.

Occurring about 1.7 days before perigee (on June 18, 1806, at 9:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

[1] The path of totality was visible from parts of modern-day northwestern Mexico, the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, northwestern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, southeastern Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine in the United States, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger.

The eclipse was predicted by Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa and its appearance aided unity among the Indigenous peoples of North America.

Astronomer José Joaquín de Ferrer observed and named the solar corona during this eclipse.

This tribal unity threatened William Henry Harrison, the Territorial Governor of Indiana and future 9th President of the United States.

He wrote: "If he (Tenskwatawa) is really a prophet, ask him to cause the Sun to stand still or the Moon to alter its course, the rivers to cease to flow or the dead to rise from their graves."

[2] José Joaquín de Ferrer observed from Kinderhook, New York and gave the name corona to the glow of the faint outer atmosphere of the Sun seen during a total eclipse.

Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee).