  We present a galaxy survey of the field surrounding PKS0405-123 performed
with the WFCCD spectrometer at Las Campanas Observatory. The survey is
comprised of two datasets: (1) a greater than 95% complete survey to R = 20 of
the field centered on PKS0405-123 with 10' radius (L~0.1 L_* and radius of 1Mpc
at z=0.1); and (2) a set of four discontiguous (i.e. non-overlapping), flanking
fields covering ~1 square degree area with completeness ~90% to R=19.5mag. With
these datasets, one can examine the local and large-scale galactic environment
of the absorption systems identified toward PKS0405-123. In this paper, we
focus on the OVI systems analyzed in Paper I. The results suggest that this gas
arises in a diverse set of galactic environments including the halos of
individual galaxies, galaxy groups, filamentary-like structures, and also
regions devoid of luminous galaxies. In this small sample, there are no obvious
trends between galactic environment and the physical properties of the gas.
Furthermore, we find similar results for a set of absorption systems with
comparable N(HI) but no detectable metal-lines. The observations indicate that
metals are distributed throughout a wide range of environments in the local
universe. Future papers in this series will address the distribution of
galactic environments associated with metal-line systems and the Lya forest
based on data for over 10 additional fields. All of the data presented in this
paper is made public at a dedicated web site.
