We examine the clustering of galaxies around a sample of 20 luminous low redshift ( z \buildrel < \over { \sim } 0.30 ) quasars observed with the Wide Field Camera-2 on the Hubble Space Telescope .
The HST resolution makes possible galaxy identification brighter than V = 23.5 and as close as 2 ^ { \prime \prime } to the quasar .
We find a significant enhancement of galaxies within a projected separation of \buildrel < \over { \sim } 100 { h ^ { -1 } kpc } of the quasars .
If we model the qso/galaxy correlation function as a power law with a slope given by the galaxy/galaxy correlation function , we find that the ratio of the qso/galaxy to galaxy/galaxy correlation functions is 3.8 \pm 0.8 .
The galaxy counts within r < 15 { h ^ { -1 } kpc } of the quasars are too high for the density profile to have an appreciable core radius ( \buildrel > \over { \sim } 100 { h ^ { -1 } kpc } ) .
Our results reinforce the idea that low redshift quasars are located preferentially in groups of 10–20 galaxies rather than in rich clusters .
We see no significant difference in the clustering amplitudes derived from radio-loud and radio-quiet subsamples .