Functioning Apple 1 computer of Bygone Days sells for $668,000

Collectors can go to any extent in adding rare and historical artifacts, coins, match boxes, stamps, record jackets, labels - and even vintage machines like first gen computers of bygone days.


And here comes Apple 1 - one of Apple's first computers marketed in 1976 and completely functional - that an auctioneer in Berlin says has been sold for a record 516,000 euros ($668,000), reports CTV News.

German auction house Breker said Saturday an Asian client, who asked not to be named, bought the so-called Apple 1, which the tech company's founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built in a family garage.

Breker claims it is one of only six known remaining functioning models in the world. Breker already sold one last year for 492,000 euros.

Do you have something lying in your collection which you would like to put on sale and be a half millionaire just by the last stroke of the hammer in an auction house?

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Explosion on moon visible from earth

I do not know whether the hobbying astronomers watched this or not, but NASA did notice a bright explosion on moon which was visible from the earth.

Explosion on the moon, reported by NASA May 17, was caused by a meteor hitting the surface and was visible on earth to the naked eye

The explosion was caused by a meteoroid that struck the moon surface recently, says NASA on Friday. The impact caused an explosion that was visible on Earth without the aid of a telescope. But don't be alarmed if you didn't see it; it only lasted about a second.

"It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before," said Bill Cooke, of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

NASA's lunar monitoring program has detected hundreds of meteoroid impacts. The brightest, detected on March 17, 2013, in Mare Imbrium, is marked by the red square

NASA says the meteoroid was about 40 kilograms and less than a meter wide, and it hit the moon's surface at 56,000 mph. It glowed like a 4th magnitude star, NASA says, thanks to an explosion equivalent to 5 tons of TNT.

However there is one question which may or may not have come to your mind. But if you're wondering how there can be an explosion on the moon, without oxygen, NASA has the answer for you. It says the flash of light comes not from any type of combustion - as we typically think of explosions - but rather by the glowing molten rock at the impact site.

So this is the answer which may add to your knowledge if you are a hobbying astronomer. So keep watch moon more  - you may find another explosion too if you are lucky.

(via CNN - NASA )
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United States returns stolen remains of 70 million year old Tyrannosaurus skeleton Mongolia

Collecting rare artifacts and other historical objects is one of the major hobbies of the rich around the world. But sometimes a costly auction may land a collector into trouble. And this is exactly what happened to a collector who landed up in jail for 17 years and also the remains of very unique and rare skeleton returned to country to which it belonged.

Tyrannosaurus [Photo: My Jurassic Park]

In what is being termed as a rare cultural return, the United States has returned the fossilized remains of a 70 million year old Tyrannosaurus skeleton stolen from the Gobi desert in Mongolia.

The remains which were sold at auction in New York last year for more than a million dollars, the near complete skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus Bataar - a cousin of the better-known T-Rex - is being repatriated at Mongolia's request.

Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

In the meantime, collector Eric Prokopi pleaded guilty last December to smuggling the remains and faces up to 17 years in jail.

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