We present new ground-based data following up on the HST discovery of low-redshift Lyman \alpha absorption in the sight-line to the quasar 3C273 .
Our goal is to investigate the relationship between the low-column-density absorbers and higher column-density objects such as galaxies or H II regions .
Narrow-band filter observations with a coronograph show that there are no H II regions or other strong H \alpha line-emitting gas within a 12 kpc radius of the line-of-sight to the quasar , at the velocities of three of the absorbers .
Broad-band imaging in Gunn r shows that there are no dwarf galaxies at Virgo distances with absolute magnitude above M _ { B } \approx -13.5 and within a radius of 40 kpc from the line-of-sight to the quasar .
Finally , we present fiber spectroscopy of a complete sample of galaxies within a radius of 1 deg , down to an apparent magnitude of B \approx 19 .
Analysis of this sample , combined with galaxies within 10 Mpc of the quasar line-of-sight taken from the literature , shows that the absorbers are definitely not distributed at random with respect to the galaxies , but also that the absorber-galaxy correlation function is not as strong as the galaxy-galaxy correlation function on large scales .
We show that our data are consistent with the hypothesis that all galaxies more luminous than 1/10 L ^ { * } have effective cross-sections ( for association with absorbers whose neutral-hydrogen column-density ( Log ( NH ) ) is > 13.0 ) , of between 0.5 and 1 Mpc .
We also show a clear case of a Lyman \alpha absorber which has no galaxy brighter than M _ { B } =-18 within a projected distance of 4.8 Mpc , and discuss the possibility that Lyman \alpha absorbers are destroyed in a rich galaxy environment .