It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory on 7 February 1938.
[2] West orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.4–3.0 AU once every 4 years and 5 months (1,625 days).
[1] In November 2016, a first rotational lightcurve of West was obtained from photometric observations by Italian astronomers.
Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 14.14 hours with a brightness variation of 0.50 magnitude (U=3-).
He also was the International Astronomical Union's general secretary (1982–1985) and president of its Commission XX (1988–1991).