We've covered Distant Suns before, and we missed the Galilean Nights, but we're giving away 10 copies of Distant Suns [iTunes Link] for your iPhone or iPod touch this week. It's always a good time to have the "universe in your shirt pocket," right? The rules couldn't be simpler (unless we allowed everyone to enter, but promo codes are US-only, sorry) so enter a comment to win!

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter, leave a comment below.
• The comment must be left by Saturday, October 31 at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Ten winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: Promo code for the Distant Suns app (US$4.99 value).
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

The Perseid meteor shower should peak tomorrow, August 12, and stay spectacular for a few days after. If you've got the means, I highly recommend you check it out. Quite a show. I'm not sure an iPhone camera would do it justice, but you can prove me wrong by submitting your Perseid meteor shower shots on our TUAW tumblr page. They don't really have to be taken with the iPhone, so if you have a nice telescope, don't be shy.

To celebrate the Perseids we're giving away 25 copies of Distant Suns, a nifty astronomy app for the iPhone and iPod touch (which we've covered before), in one of our patented random giveaways. As usual, this is limited to the US (sorry!), you must be over 18, and so forth. Full rules down below. To enter, just leave us a comment telling us whether you've seen the Perseids.

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment indicating whether you've seen the Perseid Meteor Shower.
• The comment must be left before Friday, August 14, 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Twenty-five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: Promo code for one copy of Distant Suns for iPhone, US$5.99 value
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Note: The current version of Distant Suns is iPhone OS 3.0-only, but a pre-3.0 version should be available soon.

In this International Year of Astronomy we're seeing a small explosion of astronomy apps updated both for the Mac and the iPhone.

One of my favorites, Distant Suns [App Store] has updated the build that runs on the 3GS iPhone to include some augmented reality features. This means that if you point the phone up to the sky, the program figures out the direction you are pointing and your elevation and slews to the proper view of the star map, giving you a view that should match what you are seeing in the sky.

This greatly enhances the usefulness of this program, especially for novices who want to get outside under the summer stars and quickly figure out 'what's up?'.

This new version is only for 3GS iPhones, and an update with some additional features for all the earlier models is on the way. Of course older phones won't have the compass feature. Other changes include some UI tweaks, and setting the sound effects default to 'off.'

Pocket Universe [App Store], which I reviewed last month, has a similar feature and also works very well. Pocket Universe sells for US$2.99 and Distant Suns is $5.99. Check reader reactions to both and go into details on the features to decide which one is right for you.

Distant Suns has a long pedigree in the star mapping world. It first ran on the Commodore Amiga in 1987, then was ported to the PC, the Mac, and now your favorite cell phone.

When you look up at the moon this summer to celebrate the Apollo 11 landing 40 years ago, be sure to investigate the thousands of other points of light with a software app that will literally point you in the right direction.

Note: Distant Suns runs on the iPod touch as well, but the software will not have the augmentation/orientation feature because the magnetometer isn't present in the iPod touch hardware.

When the fireworks stop and the smoke clears, it would be a great weekend to look at our beautiful summer skies. Pocket Universe [App Store] is a US$2.99 app that has been updated to make star finding easier for those that have a new iPhone 3GS.

The app uses the position sensors and the compass to orient your phone to match the real sky. As you turn or tilt the phone, the sky map changes to give you a very accurate picture of where you are pointing, with lots of labels and links to more information. This is one of the first examples of an augmented reality app to hit the platform since the introduction of the 3GS.

If you have an older iPhone or iPod touch running OS 3.0, you can tilt the phone to match where the real sky is, but you'll have to manually set the direction you're facing.

This changes everything for the novice astronomer. I tried the feature and it worked really well, even though I was near a large metal building. As I turned my phone the display of the sky changed very rapidly to keep up with my movement.

Other nice features from the last version are intact. You can tap the 'locate' button to find any object that is above the horizon. Select it and it centers on the map. Tap a pop-up for more info and you get a quick summary of the object. In the new version of the app a further tap gets you a Wikipedia entry.

You also get a list of meteor showers, lunar phases and a very nice 'tonight's sky' feature that tells you right away what's up and worth seeing.

Some things I'd like to see improved: The app could support finger-pointing to an object to identify it in addition to going to the locate menu, and the Virtual Sky feature is buried in an options menu. I'd like to see an onscreen button to turn it on and off.

The 3GS features are similar to a Celestron product called the Sky Scout that is a dedicated astronomical instrument. The Sky Scout has a lot more information, and audio tours of the skies, but it costs $200.00. If you're really serious about the stars and planets I'd give it a look.

Meanwhile, another favorite astronomy app, Distant Suns [App Store] has been updated recently, and is now on sale for US$3.99. It has added features to the wonderful tour guides and now includes more information about the objects displayed, including travel time at light speed to the planets. It also includes some breathtaking images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

This is the International Year of Astronomy, so it's a great time to get outdoors and look up. It's fun to do, and the iPhone apps really make it a more compelling and educational experience.

Here are some screen shots of Pocket Universe in operation: