Crossword Genius

Star books into empty Astoria on first of September (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

antares

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'star' is the definition.
(Antares is an example)

'books into empty astoria on first of september' is the wordplay.
'books' becomes 'nt' (New Testament).
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'on first of september' becomes 'res' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'astoria' with its centre removed is 'aa'.
'nt' inserted inside 'aa' is 'anta'.
'anta'+'res'='ANTARES'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for antares that I've seen before include "Red supergiant star in Scorpio; nae star (anag.)" , "brilliant point" , "Star reddened" , "Red supergiant star in Scorpius" , "RS [RED STAR]" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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