Dark skies (Solution No. 3,333)

The solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,333 is below the fold.

A very clear sky tonight, a newish moon, and being twenty-some miles out to sea made it an excellent night for stargazing here.  Amazing how many stars can be seen with the naked eye when the sky is so dark.


A little of just about everything in this puzzle, making it a fitting example of Hot and Trazom’s work.

Legend: “*” anagram; “~” sounds like; “<“ letters reversed; “( )” letters inserted; “_” or lower case: letters deleted; “†” explicit in the clue, “^” first or last letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters; “§” heteronym, “¶” letter bank, “‡” Spoonerism

Across

1a	B(LOGOS)P HERE	BP (“oil company”) containing (“restricts”) LOGOS (“identifying images”) + HERE (“in this place”)
7a	W<RAPS<	^W^orkplace (first letter indicated by “initiator”) + <SPAR< (“tussle,” reversal indicated by “over”)
8a	GAU(ZINE)SS	GAUSS (“mathematician”) containing (“accepting”) ZINE (“homemade periodical”)
10a	*ARNOLD	*RONALD (anagram indicated by “bad”)
11a	*NORTH SEA	*SHERATON (anagram indicated by “polluted”)
12a	*HEALTHIER	IT HALER EH (anagram indicated by “can make”)
14a	<ERGO<	<OGRE< (“monster,” reversal indicated by “returns”)
17a	~RUED	~RUDE (“boorish,” homophone indicated by “speakers”)
18a	*NATTERING	*RANT GET IN (anagram indicated by “buggy”)
20a	ACA(PUL_)C O	ACAC (“two air conditioners”) containing (“outside”) PUL_l_ (“draw,” omission of last letter indicated by “nearly”)
22a	*STYMIE	*MY SITE (anagram indicated by “a redesign”)
24a	EG G P(L)ANTS	EG (“for example”) + G (“green”) + PANTS (“bottoms”) containing (†) ^L^ycopene (first letter indicated by “a bit of”)
25a	*CAK(E)S	*SACK (anagram indicated by “surprisingly”) containing (“involving”) booz^E^ (fifth letter indicated by “fifth of”)
26a	LITTER ATE UR	LITTER (“trash”) + ATE (“took in”) + UR (“an ancient city)

Down

1d	BRA IN CASE	BRA (“underwear”) + IN CASE (“provided”)
2d	*OB(SOLE)TE	SOLE (“only”) contained in (“parts”) *TO BE (anagram indicated by “sadly”)
3d	_ORGY_	outd_OR GY_mnasium (hidden word indicated by “in”)
4d	*PLUTOCRAT	*CLOUT [and] TRAP (anagram indicated by “undermine”) Not a particularly clean indicator.
5d	*EDICT S	*CITED (anagram indicated by “wrongly”) + ^S^enate (senate indicated by “leader”) The partisan tint of this one goes the wrong way for The Nation readers.
6d	EVENS	Inverted clue: ARE are the even letters in hAaRlEm
7d	~WEATHER VANE	~WHETHER (“if”) + ~VAIN (“useless,” homophone indicated by “loud”)
9d	S(H)ARON GLESS	^H^unter (first letter indicated by “lead”) contained in (“admitted to”) SARONGLESS (“going naked in Malaysia”) My favorite clue of the puzzle.
13d	¶INNOCENCE	¶ON ICE (letter bank indicated by “with ingredients chopped up and reused”)
15d	‡RAINMAKER	‡MAIN RAKER (“principal gardener,” Spoonerism indicated by “Spooner’s”)
16d	*PENTACLE	*CLEAN PET (anagram indicated by “unusual”)
19d	SUB LET	SUB (“hero” [sandwich]) + LET (“allowed”)
21d	*ANGEL	*LANGE (anagram indicated by “in distress”)
23d	AS IA	AS (“like”) + IA (“Iowa”) A little too easy.