Observing Jumpspace Transition: To an outside observer, the entry of a ship into jumpspace is a most spectacular sight. It begins when the jump grid is first warmed up during the preparation for jump. The lanthanum traces in the hull slowly build up a faint blue-white glow which forms a crisscross pattern across the surface of the ship.

When the Captain orders the ship into jumpspace. the increased energy flow causes the pattern to suddenly become so bright it is almost painful to look at with the naked eye. A blue "energy haze" forms about the ship as the weave of the targeted jumpspace level is disturbed. Finally, too fast for the eye to follow, the ship seems to collapse into a line along its central axis and quickly shrinks to a brilliant point of light before it vanishes completely. Only the blue haze remains to mark the passage into jumpspace, and that quickly fades.

To an observer aboard a starship, the process is far less spectacular. One second he is looking at a normal star field with a glare from the energized lanthanum hull grid clearly visible; the next, he can see only the undulating gray nothingness of the protective jump field.