Get Galaxy Charts, gentlemen.
Point your ship so you won't collide with anything (or more accurately, so the warpAI won't have to alter course to avoid anything), go to the helm menu, and press "In-System Warp".
*WHOOSH! BANG!*_- = _-=_(<-these are warp stars)
I also like to warp away, recharge my shields, then point at my target, go to warp and fire a full spread of torpedoes at warp at over 1000km away. It's immensely satisfying. It helps if you change the intercept distance in the warpIntercept.py file from 900 to 50km.