The Starling is our shared observatory controller. It is designed to enable several users to seamlessly interact with a shared observatory, while including safeguards for the owner of the roof (the sentinel) to be able to take over where necessary.
In a nutshell, the Starling handles open and close requests from users, allows them to interact with the roof as if they were the only ones sending commands to it, and ensures that ASCOM compliance is maintained in the same way. From the user's point of view, interacting with a shared roof via the Starling is analogous to interacting with an individual roof using the Dragonfly or the Caterpillar.
The sentinel is also able to control some observatory devices, such as dehumidifiers, lights, and alarms.