This is a large nebula, which stretched over 2 telescope fields at low power. The nebula of course is huge, some 100 lightyears across and only 1800 lightyears away.
I viewed it last night with my Vixen 140mm (SS) scope, using a 24mm Panoptic EP (33x). It was easy to find since it was located conveniently near Xi Perseus.
The nebula is somewhat like a bent rectangle in shape. It could be seen reasonably well with the 140mm scope. A dark lane was seen on the eastern side.
I viewed it the previous night with my Tak 100D scope and a 30mm Plossl EP. I could only just see parts of the nebula, of which the western side looked thicker and easier to see. It was quite marginal and most laypeople would have seen nothing, but a layperson would have been able to see it with the 140mm scope.
More information:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160112.html
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/nebulae/ngc1499.html
https://oneminuteastronomer.com/1141/california-nebula/