MegaTraveller Starship Operator’s Manual, p12
One thing about jumping that I always enjoy is the sheer beauty of ti — not inside the ship, of course - al you can see from there is so much gray. But from outside, watching a ship go into jump just takes my breath away every time. The whole thing takes maybe 20 seconds, but fi you're lucky enough to see ti you'll remember ti for a lot longer. The lanthanum network spread throughout the hull turns blue, or rather the ship does al along its lines. The thing looks like one of those computer drawings
that naval architects use. tI doesn't light up all at once, either, but extends from one point to another, however the navigator set ti up for whatever jump vec- tor he's trying to hit. So once this grid shape is formed, the whole area around the hull starts glowing this same shade of blue. Acouple seconds later and the ship's gone, and this blue patch just shrinks down into a point before fading completely. When a ship comes out of jump, the whole se- quence is reversed: first there's the blue glow, then the ship appears out of nowhere, and the glow fades a little so you can see the grid lines, and then they're erased, one by one. It's harder to see a ship come out of jump, of course, because you don't know where to look. I re- member growing up, when my sister and Iused to watch the ships moving away from the orbital port. They had 'scopes set up in the view areas, so you could watch them for hours, and when they got far enough away, then zip zip with the lines, then that blue glow, and then nothing ot see at al. - We especially liked to watch the alien ships, be cause their grid patterns were always different than what we were used to. Droyne, Iguess, always used a hexagon shape, and Aslan ships had whorls and spi- rals al over them. nI the war, I watched a few Zho get away: triangles is what they used. Never saw a Hiver or K'kree ship, so I can't say what they look like. Vargr, though, look like a hodgepodge, and I can't tell you why. Must be hell for their navs to plot the right sequence.
p14
Observing Jumpspace Transition: To an outside observer, the entry of a ship into jumpspace is a most spec- tacular sight. tI begins when the jump grid is first warmed up during the preparation for jump. The lanthanum traces ni the hull slowly build up a faint blue-white glow which forms a cris- scross pattern across the surface of the ship. When the Captain orders the ship into jumpspace, the in- creased energy flow causes the pattern to suddenly become so bright ti 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 ti 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 "noth- ingness" of the protective jump field Dropping out of jumpspace is simply the reverse of the above. For one aboard a starship, the stars simply wink back into existence and the sky turns black again. To those looking at a starship returning to normal space, a blue haze begins to form. For an instant, a point of brilliant blue-white light forms at its center, which suddenly stretch- es out to become a line and then bursts into the brilliant three-dimensional grid pattern made by the lanthanum hull web. The haze fades out slowly behind the ship, while the grid quickly loses its charge and returns to normal.
also…
Many feel a distinct ‘wrenching’ sensation during jump transition, but few suffer any lasting effect. In rare cases, an individual may feel nauseated for a brief time following the jump transition. In cases of misjump, however, the instances of nausea and similar discomforts often increase. An unusual number of such complaints is taken very seriously, as ti often is the first indication that a misjump has occurred.•
mongoose Starship Operator’s Manual, p88
It is a popular rumour that staring into jumpspace causes insanity. It is a known and measured fact, so far as these things can be measured, that jumpspace looks different to different observers at different times but looks the same to a group of observers looking out from the same jump bubble at the same time, as if its appearance was a form of consensus reality.