  Radial-velocity variations of the H-alpha emission measured on the steep
wings of the H-alpha line, prewhitened for the long-time changes, vary
periodically with a period of (218.025 +/- 0.022)d, confirming the suspected
binary nature of the bright Be star Pleione, a member of the Pleiades cluster.
The orbit seems to have a high eccentricity over 0.7, but we also briefly
discuss the possibility that the true orbit is circular and that the
eccentricity is spurious owing to the phase-dependent effects of the
circumstellar matter. The projected angular separation of the spectroscopic
orbit is large enough to allow the detection of the binary with large optical
interferometers, provided the magnitude difference primary - secondary is not
too large. Since our data cover the onset of a new shell phase up to
development of a metallic shell spectrum, we also briefly discuss the recent
long-term changes. We confirm the formation of a new envelope, coexisting with
the previous one, at the onset of the new shell phase. We find that the full
width at half maximum of the H-alpha profile has been decreasing with time for
both envelopes. In this connection, we briefly discuss Hirata's hypothesis of
precessing gaseous disk and possible alternative scenarios of the observed
long-term changes.
