Hi waking_life! Welcome to the forum! 
Of course, people disagree about this cause some of them don’t think AP is possible. 
Astral projecters think it’s different. They believe that you can see real things while AP’ing. They describe some methods to reach a AP from a LD. I gave some of them in this post.
[url]The Big OBE topic part II - #91 by Basilus_West]
I never tried them cause I don’t believe in AP. I think it’s LD’ing + remote viewing.
It depends on the methods you’re using. From your description (AP is staying concious while entering the Astral plane), you tried a sort of WILD method (WILD is staying conscious while entering the dream… and as Sylvan Muldoon says that the Astral Plane is the Realm of Dreams… 
).
WILD is the less easy method. It’s said to be easier if you practice it in conjunction with WBTB. Then if you practice WILD in the same way you practiced AP, you’re likely not to have results.
I see two possibilities. You change your WILD/AP method by searching on the forum another WILD method which fits you better and above all by practising WILD with WBTB. What results have you got with AP up to now? How close did you go to the dream state? Had you some curious visual or auditory phenomena (HH) while falling asleep?
If you didn’t, I think the best for you would be practising a DILD method (that is a method which make you conscious in the middle of a dream) like autosuggestion, MILD or reality checks. And as you can see in the post linked above, astral projecters think it’s possible to enter the astral plane from a LD. So it’s another gate. Good luck! 
Eventually, I think I’ll move your post in the Beyond Dreaming subforum, cause it’s mainly paranormal oriented. 
Me too!