Page 8 The North Carolina Mason March/April 2014
In this issue of
The NC Mason
page 1
The
North
Carolina
Mason
The
Grand
Lodge
of
North
Carolina,
AF&AM
600
College
Street
Oxford,
North
Carolina
27565
CHANGE
SERVICE
REQUESTED
NON-PROFIT
ORG.
AUTO
U.S.
POSTAGE
PAID
OXFORD,
NC
27565
PERMIT
NO.
56
Rufus Edmisten visits us
at NC History Museum
page 8
MESH Foundation grant
applications announced
page 8
Webb Telescope advances
toward 2018 launch
On the cover
Rufus
shares
insider
account
of
Watergate
hearings
The
Mason
NORTH
CAROLINA
MAR/APR
2014
Webb
Space
Telescope
on
launch
path
NC Mason Rufus Edmisten furnished
many of the artifacts in the NC Museum
of History's exhibit about the US Senate's
Watergate hearings.
Ric Carter photo
see WEBB, page 5
GREENSBORO — Financial assistance for housing at White-
Stone, a Masonic and Eastern Star Community in Greensboro, is
now available to qualified members of the Grand Lodge of NC AF
& AM and the NC Order of the Eastern Star. Applicants must
first apply to and be accepted by WhiteStone, and then apply to
the NC Masonic and Eastern Star Home Foundation, LLC for
financial assistance. e deadline for applications for the first round
of funding from the MESH Foundation is June 30, and review of
applications will begin July 1, 2014. e first awards are expected to
be made in August.
Funding is available to cover a portion of WhiteStone's entry
fees and up to 75 percent of the cost of housing in a one-bedroom
or studio apartment.
e MESH Foundation was established to provide direct finan-
cial assistance to eligible North Carolina Master Masons, their wives,
mothers, daughters, sisters, and widows, and to members of the Or-
der of the Eastern Star. is financial assistance is made possible by
charitable contributions from the Masonic and Eastern Star foun-
dations, from Masonic lodges and Eastern Star chapters, and from
caring individual donors. Financial awards will be made as funds be-
come available through these contributions. Given sufficient funds,
managers will review applications every quarter and make awards in
February, May, August, and November.
Information on housing availability and admission to White-
Stone is available from Mark Kolada at (336) 547-2992 or mkolada@
LiveatWhiteStone.org.
Applications for funding from the MESH Foundation are avail-
able at and , and from the offices
of the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter.
Completed applications must include a letter of recommendation
from the lodge or chapter, signed by the secretary and with the seal
affixed. Proof of assets, liabilities, and monthly income, and federal
and state income tax returns for the past seven years, must accompany
applications.
Applications may be emailed to meshfoundationllc@gmail.
com or sent to:
e Managers, NC Masonic and Eastern Star Home Foundation,
LLC 700 South Holden Road, Greensboro, North Carolina 27407
GREENBELT, MARY-
LAND — NASA Administra-
tor Charles Bolden and Senator
Barbara Mikulski of Maryland
congratulated the James Webb
Space Telescope team February
3 for the delivery of all flight
instruments and primary mir-
rors to NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland where NASA's flag-
ship science project will be as-
sembled in preparation for
launch in 2018.
"e Hubble Space Telescope
has already rewritten the science
books. Going from Hubble to
the James Webb Space Telescope
is like going from a biplane to
the jet engine," said Mikulski,
Chairwoman of the Senate Ap-
propriations Committee that
funds NASA. "e James Webb
Space Telescope will keep us in
the lead for astronomy for de-
cades to come, spurring the in-
novation and technology that
keep America's economy rolling."
NASA's James Webb Space
Telescope will be the most powerful space telescope ever built, ca-
pable of observing the most distant objects in the universe, provid-
ing images of the first galaxies formed, and observing unexplored
planets around distant stars. A joint project of NASA, the Europe-
an Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA),
Webb is the successor to the agency's Hubble Space Telescope.
All 18 of Webb's primary mirror segments are now housed in
the Goddard clean room. Its 1.3 million cubic feet of dust-free
space make the clean room one of the world's largest. All four
of Webb's science instruments are within feet of the mirrors. e
telescope's mirror and instruments will capture images of the uni-
verse and break down the spectra of incoming light to analyze
the properties of galaxies, stars, and the atmospheres of planets
beyond our solar system.
One of these instruments, the Near-Infrared Camera, will
be Webb's primary camera and will take images of the first stars
and galaxies to form in the universe, along with many other as-
tronomical targets.
Another instrument, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIR-
Spec), will analyze the spectra and composition of as many as 100
objects at once.
The Mid-Infrared Instrument, has both a camera and a
spectrograph, which sees light in the mid-infrared region of
the electromagnetic spectrum — wavelengths longer than the
human eye can see.
e final instrument, the Fine Guidance Sensor and Near-in-
frared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph, will allow Webb to point
precisely at its target in order to obtain high-quality images, and
also will provide other valuable science modes for investigating
both the distant universe and nearby exoplanets.
Once in space, a huge sunshield will act as an umbrella to
keep heat radiating from the sun and Earth from reaching
scientific instruments that must stay cold to function properly.
The Webb telescope will be fully assembled by 2016 and then
moved to a clean room at NASA's Johnson Space Center for
additional testing.
James Webb was a North Carolina Mason. In 1907, James E.
Webb was born in southern Granville County. His dad was su-
perintendent of schools there. (In fact, the school our kids at the
Masonic Home for Children attend was named for his father.)
Hubble replacement named for NC
Mason moves toward launch
The James Webb Space Telescope has achieved a milestone toward it's 2018
launch.
MESH Foundation taking
applications for
WhiteStone assistance
