astropy/astropy — pull request #860 by taldcroft (2013-03-09 12:42:57+00:00)
Title: Add TimePlotDate format for input to matplotlib plot_date()

Matplotlib date input: 1 + number of days from 0001-01-01 00:00:00 UTC

This can be used directly in the matplotlib `plot_date` function::

>>> jyear = np.linspace(2000, 2001, 20)
>>> t = Time(jyear, format='jyear', scale='utc')
>>> plt.plot_date(t.plot_date, jyear)
>>> plt.gcf().autofmt_xdate() # orient date labels at a slant
>>> plt.draw()