IMAGING OF 2 DAMPED LYMAN-ALPHA ABSORBERS AT INTERMEDIATE REDSHIFTS

By observing the fields of the QSOs 3C 286 and PKS 1229-021 in the I a nd K-s bands under good seeing conditions, we have resolved faint gala xy images close to the QSO sight lines. The sizes, magnitudes, and col ors of these objects suggest that they are the galaxies producing 21 c m absorption at z(abs)=0.6922 and 0.3950 in the spectra of 3C 286 and PKS 1229-021, respectively. The absorber in front of 3C 286 appears to be a low surface brightness galaxy; this finding provides a natural e xplanation for the low metallicity and lack of molecular gas in this s ystem at an epoch when the Milky Way had already reached near-solar ab undances. The galaxy we identify as the z(abs)=0.3950 absorber in PKS 1229-021 is close to the position previously inferred from the charact er of the metal line absorption and Faraday rotation. In this field we also find several very red objects which we suspect to be elliptical galaxies in a group or cluster at z=1.042, the redshift of the QSO.