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First steps, have you downloaded the drivers from ZWO? you will need both the basic driver that includes the USB driver to get Windows (I assume you are using Windows) to see the camera and the ASCOM driver for the camera as well (Backing up a step, have you installed the ASCOM platform on your machine?)
I have not used APT for a while, there was talk of implementing ZWO native drivers in the program which would mean I am talking out of my hat and you just have to select the ZWO camera in APT.
Once you have APT talking to the camera, I would try out the cooling, try for -15 degrees and see how the cooling power level looks in your typical ambient temperatures. You don't really want to see it averaging more than about 75% power on the cooler when the temp has stabilised, to leave some headroom for warmer nights.
Once the cooling is sorted, I would start out by using some of the default settings in the camera driver via APT, try "Unity" gain, which should give you some default gain and offset settings. Then you really just need to try some test shots to work out exposure length. A lot of people seem to use about 2 minutes with the ASI1600 so it is probably a good place to start. Too short and you won't get faint details, too long and you will get loads of saturated and blobby stars.
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