EarthDesk is working, but it's showing daylight in the wrong place. Why?

The most likely problem is that the Home Location is not set correctly. Open the EarthDesk Preferences window and click on the "Atlas and Home Location" tab. In the city list on the left side, find the city you are in and drag it to the Home Location box at the top. Note that you must click and drag on the actual text and not in the blank space between the city and country names.

Why is EarthDesk contacting other sites?

To download cloud images.

The cloud images are provided by the Dundee UK Satellite tracking station. They provide six images which together cover the globe. These images are assembled into a single flat map by an open-source, volunteer organization and then distributed to a number of mirror sites. The image can then be accessed by programs like EarthDesk for free. EarthDesk selects a random mirror each time it needs to update the clouds.

Many other applications use the same list of mirrors. The goal is to distribute network traffic to help reduce bandwidth on individual servers. It also reduces the burden on the Dundee UK Satellite Station as only one site is pulling back the six images every three hours. By keeping bandwidth to a minimum, it is hoped that this free data service can continue indefinitely.

The list of servers is in ~/Library/Application Support/EarthDesk/Servers

Why is EarthDesk contacting xericdesign.com?

EarthDesk needs to download a list of servers that host the cloud images. The list is not distributed with EarthDesk because it stays more current if it is simply updated on our site. No other information transferred in either direction.

How often do the clouds update?

A new image is received from the satellite ground station every three hours.

Why aren't the clouds showing up?

If you are using v3, make sure you have at least v3.7. If you are using v4, make sure you have at least v4.6. Earlier versions will no longer download clouds, as there have been changes to the cloud server system.

Check to be sure you are connected to the internet. It is possible that EarthDesk is unable to reach www.xericdesign.com to download the list of cloud servers or that the satellite station that produces the images is down. Please try again later.

Also make sure that the clouds are turned on in the General Tab of the System Preferences Pane and that the cloud slider in the Display Tab is set well above 0%.

It is possible the problem is at the source... please see this link.

As a last resort, please quit EarthDesk, then delete the "com.xericdesign.earthdesk.cloudservers.plist" file in ~/Library/Application Support/EarthDesk/Servers and relaunch EarthDesk.

Why do the clouds look strange?

Sometimes there can be an error in transmission of cloud data from the satellite to the receiving station on Earth. You can try forcing a cloud update by clicking the "Force Cloud Update" button in the Advanced Tab. The software will try an alternate cloud server, but it will likely be the same. The problem will almost always clear up on the next pass (within 3 hours).

Why is EarthDesk showing two different colors of night?

What you are seeing is the area where there is moonlight and the area where the moon is not visible. The intensity of the moonlight will change with the phase of the moon and is most prominent in highly-reflective areas such as the sands of North Africa.