[3][13][14]: 23 Slipher orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.5–3.0 AU once every 4 years and 7 months (1,665 days).
[11][14]: 23 In 2012, two rotational lightcurves of Slipher were obtained from photometric observations by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California.
Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 7.677 and 7.693 hours with a brightness variation of 0.20 and 0.19 magnitude in the S- and R-band, respectively (U=2/2).
Vesto Slipher was a pioneer investigator of the spectra of the planets, and was the first to measure the redshifts of galaxies, which was instrumental for Hubble's discovery of the expanding Universe.
His photographs are the only continuous and systematic record of the appearance of the planets for a period of more than half a century.