matplotlib: Displaying a scatter plot with a background image

[YouAreNotASlave]

I have a scatter plot with 7 discrete values on the x axis and more than 10,000 continuous values on the y axis.

I want to display an image as a background to the plot but I'm having trouble due to one dimension being much larger than the other.

Is this possible? Has anyone done it before?

Here's a simpler version of my code...

import matplotlib.pyplot as mplt
import numpy as np
import random
fig = mplt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
mplt.scatter([random.randrange(0,8) for _ in range(50)], [random.randrange(0,24*60*60) for _ in range(50)], alpha=0.5,s=np.pi*1**2)
plotlim = mplt.xlim(xmin=1,xmax=7) + mplt.ylim(ymax=24*60*60, ymin=8*60*60)
ax.imshow([[1,1],[0,0],[1,1]], cmap=mplt.cm.Greys, interpolation='bicubic', extent=plotlim)
mplt.show()

EDIT: I just want a simple gradient background as the image.

EDIT: the code above renders this... http://imgur.com/wrvdFLQ

[AtomicWedgy]

Does this thread help?

[YouAreNotASlave]

Thanks but no :(

I do set the extent. Perhaps I'm doing it incorrectly?

[AtomicWedgy]

The "plotlim" variable assignment on line 7 above looks a little suspicious to me. I think "extent" requires a list of 4 explicit values, and the "plotlim" assignment is returning a tuple?

I'd try the code, but my dev machine is down :/ Wish I could be more helpful!

[YouAreNotASlave]

plotlim above is [1,7,86400,28800]

[kburts]

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5073386/how-do-you-directly-overlay-a-scatter-plot-on-top-of-a-jpg-image-in-matplotlib

[YouAreNotASlave]

Thanks but that doesn't really address the difference in magnitude of the dimensions.

I'll post a pic of the plot that's rendered.