Is the Royal Astronomical Society such a body? (6)
I believe the answer is:
astral
'is the' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'royal astronomical society such a body?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'royal' could be 'r' (abbreviation) and 'r' is present in the answer.
'society' could be 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations) and 's' is present in the answer.
'a' is within the answer.
The remaining letters 'tal' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for astral that I've seen before include "Altars (anag)" , "like a star" , "Like the stars" , "Pertaining to the stars" , "Relating to stars" .)